Harry Potter and the Quest of Light
by skarm
Summary: Albus Dumbledore: Dead. Voldemort: Spreading his evil. The only thing that stops him is the Boy Who lived, who must turn into a man if he wishes to not only survive, but win this wizarding war. No longer abandoned.
1. The only place He ever called Home

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 1 of ? (as many as it takes to fully tell the story I have planned)  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: With the death of Albus Dumbledore, evil is showing its face and becoming bolder and more aggressive. However, they are foolish if they believe that Dumbledore was the final pillar of Light. Harry Potter is more than willing to due what needs to be done to save the world from Darkness.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Thank you Chris (Sir Chris on Without Chris's assistance, beta work and general thought organizing I wouldn't have been able to start this story. He has helped me with the plot and other various things. If it weren't for him you wouldn't be able to start reading this novel length fanfic.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 1: **

**The only place He ever called Home**

_"After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure" - Albus Dumbledore, PS/SS_

As the crowd seated around the large White Tomb began to dissipate Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister of Magic, limped slowly off to the side. He had just finished his talk with Harry Potter in which once again he had hoped to persuade him into publicly supporting the way he was handling the war against Voldemort. Sadly, Harry Potter continued to stand firm in his loyalty to Dumbledore. This was as Scrimgeour expected, after all. The boy's loyalty to Albus Dumbledore far surpassed what he had imagined until he had met the lad during Christmas. Still, Scrimgeour had hoped that he could be convinced that it was for the good of the public.

When Scrimgeour had moved off far enough to the side he looked over his shoulder to see Percy Weasley, his Senior Undersecretary, hurrying over to his side carrying a briefcase. He stopped beside the Minister, huffing silently. He took a moment to adjust his glasses and straighten his black dress robes.

The Minister coughed purposely to get the young man's attention. Percy looked up immediately and gave his full attention to his boss. "Did you have any trouble asking Cornelius and Dolores for a moment of their time?"

Percy straightened his back and drew himself up importantly to his full height. "No, Minister, I suspect Mr. Fudge and Madam Umbridge to be along any minute," Percy replied swiftly. He stood rigidly, looking important while Scrimgeour slowly paced around. "Ah, here's Madam Umbridge now."

One would be hard pressed to recognize the short woman that was waddling her way towards Percy and Scrimgeour. She was dressed entirely in black dress robes, complete with a small black hat and black handbag at her side. She was even wearing some unique, albeit repulsive, black lipstick. In short, Dolores Umbridge was hard to imagine without imagining a lot of frilly pink.

"Minister. Weasley," wheezed Umbridge, who was clearly out of breath from her short stint across the lawn to the meeting spot. She opened up her handbag and withdrew a pink handkerchief which she used to pat down her sweaty forehead, much to the disgust of the other two people present.

"Ah, glad to see you again Dolores. I trust you were nursed back to health quickly in St Mungos?" Scrimgeour asked in greeting, though he really didn't care to hear the answer.

"It's good to see you on your feet again, Madam Umbridge," Percy chimed in, offering his hand to the short witch, which Umbridge ignored entirely in favor of directing her full attention to Scrimgeour.

She grinned slightly, her gaping mouth opening a crack. "The healers performed quite well, Minister, though if it weren't for Potter and Granger I wouldn't have had to take such a vast amount of time out of my duties."

"Duties," began Scrimgeour heavily, "that you were dismissed of when Cornelius Fudge was removed from Office," he reminded her forcefully. He didn't need Umbridge thinking immediately that she'd have her old job back as even Fudge was only hanging around because Scrimgeour felt he might be of some use.

Umbridge looked as if she had just been slapped across the face by a giant. She blinked stupidly for a few seconds as her smile was replaced by straight lipped frown. "Of course, Minister, I didn't mean to suggest that I was still Senior Undersecretary."

Scrimgeour hid his smile behind his political mask. "Of course, Dolores, your experience would most likely be a great asset to the Ministry in times such as these. I'm sure you've heard that Cornelius is in fact acting as a Senior Advisor to myself." He stretched his legs upward, looking over the short witch as his eyes caught movement. "Ah, here comes Cornelius now," he said, nodding to the figure approaching from behind Umbridge, who Scrimgeour was now ignoring a toad-like grin from.

"Mr. Fudge," Percy said stiffly, snapping to attention and offering his hand to his former boss. Unlike both Fudge and Umbridge, Percy had managed to keep his position in the Minister's Office simply because Scrimgeour felt he had potential and, of course, not having the courage to suggest otherwise or set a toe out of line was a huge asset to any Minister. In fact, within a week, Percy had been promoted to Senior Undersecretary, the position once held by Dolores Umbridge.

Fudge shooks Percy's had distractedly as he glanced nervously between the large white tomb and Scrimgeour. "Terrible business, terrible business," he muttered as he anxiously adjusted the lime green bowler atop his head.

"Something wrong, Cornelius?" Scrimgeour asked in a low growl as he glanced over the departing crowded.

"Something… wrong?" Fudge exclaimed, staring incredulously at Scrimgeour. "Something wrong Minister? Albus Dumbledore is dead!"

Scrimgeour showed no emotion at all, "I realize this Cornelius…"

"I don't think you do! Albus Dumbledore, dead!" Fudge began to pace nervously, looking between all Percy, the Minister and Umbridge. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who ever feared! He'll be active! He'll be out in the open! He'll do things he never dreamed of doing before!"

Scrimgeour stared at the pacing man in the lime green bowler for a few seconds, watching him pace, as if to size him up. He let out a sigh that sounded much like a growl, "Get a hold of yourself Cornelius. There is still Potter. You-Know-Who seems very wary around that boy-"

"Oh yes, Potter!" interrupted Fudge, who was becoming more and more hysterical. "Yes. Yes, the very same Potter who you've gone and offended on two separate occasion! The same Potter who wont support the Ministry due to your, and in the past my own, actions! No no, I am quite sure that Potter won't be stepping in to support the Ministry anytime soon."

"Mr. Fudge, are you-"

"Cornelius! Control your-"

"Silence!" bellowed Scrimgeour suddenly as he stared Fudge, who had stopped pacing at Minister's command, and shook his head slowly. "No, Potter will come around to our way of thinking- eventually. I think once he realizes how grave the situation he will also realize that his best course of action lies in siding and supporting our actions. I believe, Cornelius, that I can handle a boy who isn't even of age yet."

Fudge wrung his hands twice before pointlessly adjusting the tie he wore over his dress robes. "No, Minister, I don't think you can!" he began, the pitch of his voice rising again. "Potter is not an ordinary boy!-" Fudge added quickly as he caught sight of Percy's face turning red with anger as it often did when someone spoke ill of his boss. "Let me explain," he continued as he began to pace again, "Two years ago I decided that I should start to discredit the boy and Albus Dumbledore because I didn't want to believe that You-Know-Who was actually back. Potter didn't crumble, though, oh no! He stood up tall with his chest out. Despite all my efforts, and Dolores' too, we couldn't bend him to our will. Oh no, there is no controlling Harry Potter…"

Percy puffed up his chest importantly again, "With all due respect, Mr. Fudge, he stood behind Dumbledore. This time Dumbledore obviously isn't around to hold his hand-"

Stopping his pacing, Fudge spun around, glaring at Percy angrily, which caused the young man to jump slightly and take a step backwards. "Damn it, Weasley! Didn't you learn anything from last year? Oh ho, if Potter is anything he is exactly like Albus Dumbledore. Don't expect him to cave, Minister," he spat, turning back to Scrimgeour. "Minister, you must make amends with the boy at once!"

Percy's face look ashen, Umbridge was still standing silently having stayed out of most of the exchange as though she was calculating and plotting, while Scrimgeour himself merely shrugged at the ex-Minister's outburst. "I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree, Cornelius."

"Minister! You cannot control Harry Potter like you control young Weasley here-" he gestured towards Percy with wild flail of his arm.

"Now just a minute!" snapped Percy, his face bright red with anger, as he stepped forward a pace.

"- No, no. Potter is very strong willed! To outcast him again would be foolish. Beyond foolish even! That boy is our only hope-" Fudge continued, ignoring Percy's protest.

"Cornelius!" interrupted Umbridge, looking shocked. "We may have underestimated Potter last time, but sure you are overestimating him this-"

"Silence!" yelled Scrimgeour for a second time. All three of the arguers stopped, blinked once and looked towards the Minister for direction. "Cornelius, it appears you have lost faith in the Ministry." It wasn't a question and Fudge made no move to either confirm or deny the statement. "I have kept you on as a Senior Advisor to help guide my actions, but to disagree with every single one of them out right, Cornelius, is uncalled for. If you feel this way, perhaps you should take your leave. I am sure Madam Umbridge would be happy to fill for you." There was an easily detectable note of finality in his voice.

Fudge immediately turned on his heel and headed back towards the large tomb. "Good-day to you, Minister," he merely stated as he left with a quick pace.

When they were sure that Fudge was out of earshot, Scrimgeour turned back to Percy and Umbridge. "He is right about one thing, though," the Minister began, the gears in his head spinning. "Potter is not as easily manipulated as we had originally thought. While it would have been excellent to use his support as a morale booster, it appears that it will not be happening at this very moment. I believe very much, however, that once his memory of Dumbledore begins to fade he will in fact turn around to our way of thought. Without his public support we must continue on as we had planned."

Umbridge shuffled her stubby legs for a moment before speaking up. "Minister? Perhaps you should leave Potter to me. I have the most experience with him, after all, as I was High Inquisitor at Hogwarts just over a year ago and watched his habits. I feel confident that I would be able to turn to our side given a bit of time."

Scrimgeour took up Fudge's favorite past time of pacing slowly in front of Percy and Umbridge before replying. He rubbed his chin, which was hidden beneath his mane of hair entirely, as he turned to Umbridge. "I indeed think you are correct, Dolores. Despite what happened with your smear campaign against Potter a while ago, you are the best equipped to deal with the situation." He looked over towards the white tomb, which caused him to miss Umbridge's wide mouth turn into a disgusting smile of pleasure. "And," he began, looking down at his watch, "I believe it is time we all got back to the Ministry. We have much to do," he said as he started heading towards the Gates of Hogwarts.

Umbridge, who could not wipe the huge gaping grin off of her face due to the fortunate turn of events, or perhaps Fudge's unfortunate events depending on the view, strolled merrily along behind the Minister and Percy. While she didn't have her old position and its power back, she did, however, have a great second chance at extracting revenge on Potter for the way things had turned out during her stay at Hogwarts. She stopped for a moment at the gates, Scrimgeour and Percy hadn't noticed as they took out their wands and Apparated away with two soft pops, and turned back to the large white tomb in the distance. With Dumbledore gone yet again, this time permanently, she knew that Potter would be ripe for manipulation.

* * *

Harry Potter stood in the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry trying to hold back the tears. He had just finished attending the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, now ex-Headmaster at the school, Harry's trusted mentor and, as he now thought of his relationship with Dumbledore, his friend. While the death of Dumbledore was still weighing heavily upon him, he was swamped with tasks that must be completed as soon as possible, but with little time to do them.

First off was the reading of Dumbledore's will. This was to take place tomorrow morning in the Headmaster's office, scratch that, Headmistress' office. While he thought McGonagall would make a fine Headmistress there really was no replacing Albus Dumbledore. McGonagall knew that she had some extremely large shoes to fill.

Then there was Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna. They had all asked to speak of him about his plans for next year upon hearing from him that he wasn't planning on returning to Hogwarts next year. Harry was certain that he would not be returning because, above all else, it would be impossible to hunt down and destroy Voldemort's four remaining Horcruxes while staying at Hogwarts and trying to balance needless essays on Charms that he wouldn't need and Potions he'd never brew after learning about them. The main for him not wanting to return to Hogwarts, that he was keeping hidden, was that it would be too painful to return. The memories of Dumbledore were overwhelming. Everything about Hogwarts seemed to him reminding him of the aging wizard which made it impossible to stay too long in the building itself without him losing control of his emotions. Just a few days earlier Hogwarts itself was violated by Death Eaters and, in turn, had lead to Dumbledore's death. With Dumbledore now gone and the absence of Draco Malfoy as well as Severus Snape, he was sure the only real danger to the school was his presence since he was sure that Voldemort was already planning his funeral.

He had promised, of course, to talk to his friends after the reading of the will. Harry knew that this would allow him the time to clear his head and think about exactly how his plan was going to form. He was also hoping that Dumbledore's will had a few words of wisdom for him, but he figured this was just his wishful thinking.

Finally there was the Ministry. He had just finished a second unpleasant chat with the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. After the meeting he noticed that Scrimgeour was meeting with Dolores Umbridge, which he suspected was most likely up to no good. Of course the Ministry was the least of his worries as long as they didn't interfere with his plans that had to do with stopping Voldemort. Of course, with Dolores Umbridge in the thick of it, he felt that being left to his own devices was rather unlikely. Harry also silently hoped that the Order of the Phoenix would hold together without Dumbledore's leadership as the Order was already under pressure from the Ministry to cooperate fully within the law when the circumstances really didn't permit it. After all, Voldemort obviously wasn't playing by the rules with his six extra soul shards stashed away who knows where.

Harry sighed heavily and then immediately choked on the lump in his throat. He sniffed once before heading forward and throwing open one of the giant doors to the Great Hall. He had promised himself that he would tour Hogwarts once more for memories sake before confronting the actual reality that he wasn't going to return for his final year.

Gazing up at the awe-inspiring ceiling, he smiled faintly as he remembered how impressed he had been in first year when he had walked in for his Sorting ceremony and a young and bushy haired girl with overlarge front teeth informed him immediately that she had read how it was bewitched to look like the sky outside.

His attention shifted down to his right. The long table that had served as the Gryffindor table had been his eating spot for six long years. He remembered countless discussions he'd had while sitting there with Ron and Hermione talking about how Professor Snape was most likely going to steal the Philosopher's Stone at the next convenient opportunity and how it was their job to stop him. He gritted his teeth and felt a surge of anger at the thought of Snape. He wished now that Snape actually had been after the Stone during his first year at Hogwarts so that Dumbledore would have thrown the bloody murderer out on his ass five years before it was too late.

Harry gulped again at the thought of Dumbledore, but immediately had to wipe the tears from his eyes on the sleeve of his robe as he caught sight of the teacher's table at the far side of the Great Hall. Dumbledore's chair was empty, like rest of the Hall itself, but Harry knew that Dumbledore would never again raise his goblet and ask for silence. He would never again announce when Quidditch trials would be held, or that the Forbidden Forest was off-limits to everyone who didn't wish to die a most painful death. Harry bitterly thought of one person who he wished would die a painful death.

Fearing that he wouldn't be able to take anymore of the memories that were flooding him by looking at the chair that only Dumbledore had sat in (McGonagall, when temporarily taking over for Dumbledore during Harry's second year had refused to take his seat) for the last five years, he stormed from the Great Hall and closed the door loudly behind him. Selecting a random staircase to take him to his next location, he slipped down the stone staircase and into the stone cold dungeons underneath the castle.

Harry immediately regretted his feet for choosing this location. He had very few, if any, pleasant memories of the dungeons and, more importantly, the Slytherins who inhabited them as well as the Potions classes. Though this last year had gone rather well for Harry's Potions studies, they had been sorely tainted when Harry had learned that the so called Half-Blood Prince had been Severus Snape. His five prior years of Potions studies had been less than amusing as well. This was, among many things that were wrong in Harry's mind, all Snape's fault. Feeling his anger getting the better of him, he lashed out, punching the cold stone wall with his fist. Connecting solidly, he immediately regretted it the pain quickly registered in his brain. He winced, clutching his fist as he stumbled farther into the dungeons.

"- don't know what's happened to him, I keep telling you," came a voice that Harry recognized as Blaise Zabini.

Despite the pounding feeling his fist and pain flashing around his mind, he quickly ducked inside the regular dungeon classroom that was used for his Potions class.

"But you're his best friend! You have to know!" whined Pansy Parkinson. "If anyone knows, it's you!"

There was a shuffled of feet and robes somewhere farther down the corridor before Zabini replied again.

"Get off of me. I don't need you crawling all over my body like Malfoy does."

There was an angry shriek and another rustle of robes.

"Hey! Put your damn wand away!" Zabini exclaimed with a mix of surprise and anger. After a few moments there was quieter rustle of robes and Harry assumed that Pansy had complied.

"Everyone knows you're the one to talk to when they need answers and Draco isn't around," Pansy said adamantly as she still tried to persuade him.

Zabini snorted in amusement. "It's not like I know where Snape took him, or where the Dark Lord's headquarters is. Even _if_ I did, I certainly wouldn't just go blabbing to someone like you… you aren't even in the Dark Lord's service ye-" there was a sound of skin hitting skin in a distinct slap, and it was only confirmed with Zabini's comment of "OW!" directly after. "You stupid wench," Zabini began again, growling. "Touch me again and I really will do it so don't tempt me."

"Oh real threatening. You don't have the guts, and I heard from Daphne that you're actually in to that kind of… _thing_. Fine. Don't tell me. I'll find out in a few weeks, you bloody ass," Pansy's replied, trying to sound as if she didn't care, but the worry in her voice was evident.

"Keep your bloody voice down. Merlin you really are stupid, you know that? What if the wrong person overheard you talking like this? Do you think they'd go 'Oh never mind, she must be kidding!'?" Zabini lectured her. Harry could just imagine the look on Pansy's face. No one ever talked to her like this.

Through the crack that was open in the classroom door Harry spotted Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson stride up towards the Entrance Hall. Harry could tell that Pansy's face was distraught and streak with tears.

"I just want to know he's ok," whimpered Pansy in a soft tone.

"He's fine, trust me. Dumbledore's dead and he's not in Azkaban. That mean's he's fine."

"But-"

Zabini cut her off with a glare as the two Slytherins reached the stairs and began to ascend.

Harry drew his wand despite the throbbing pain in his hand. He was sure that Zabini was a Death Eater with what had had overhead, and he certainly wasn't going to let him get away. He stepped towards the door and began to silently and slowly slide it open, hoping to get a clear shot at the two bodies.

Upon opening up the door more, he heard the distinct sound of footsteps, quite a few of them by the sound of it, heading towards the staircase. He quickly withdrew back into the classroom and listened.

"So then I told Rosmerta to screw off if she wasn't going to do it. Natch' she just got mad and kicked me out, but it was worth it. I heard that Malfoy had her under Imperius, but he never kept her open to giving favors," a deep voice sniggered. A bunch of other laughs followed.

"'Guess it proves that even people not in their right mind wouldn't touch O'Toole either," a sharp female voice replied, louder this time as the group approached the door. More laughs followed.

"Oh real funny Viridian. You should help your father write some comedy or something instead of those books on minor curses and hexes dragonshit. Guess he wouldn't be too happy to know what stuff you got up to around here," the voice belonging to O'Toole replied.

The girl named only as Viridian replied in a hushed whisper, "Everyone in Slytherin casts stuff like that-"

There was a bunch of laughs before O'Toole replied. "Oh no, not that. You may try to piss me off, but you're still as big of a whore Stevens' mum. Remember at Christmas? You were down on your knees? Yeah, you remember, Viridian. Miserable slut," O'Toole spat out the final sentence with a clear loathing.

"That was the fucking Firewhisky, you fucking bastard!" cried Viridian, while another male voice, presumably Stevens' protested the reference between the girl and his mum.

The group, composed of six seventh year Slytherins that Harry had only seen a few times around the school, passed the door.

"Right. Whatever you wanna call it," O'Toole said. He was rather large, much like Crabbe and Goyle, with reddish-orange hair, but it was fairly lighter orange that that of Ron's or Ginny's.

"You're just fucking bitter because you never actually ended up getting any despite spiking all of the girls' drinks from fourth year and up with potions and Firewhisky," Viridian smirked triumphantly. She had pale green eyes with long and well groomed brown hair that hung down nearly to her waist.

Harry watched the Slytherins begin to climb the stairs as O'Toole and Viridian kept bickering about whether or not Viridian was a slut and whether O'Toole was in fact a hag in disguise. When they were about halfway up the stairs, the voice Harry knew to be Stevens' called out.

"Hey wait up Zabini! It's not like anyone cares that we're leaving. Nott's already gone with our luggage and stuff so what's the rush?"

Harry knew that Blaise Zabini had replied, but it was too fast and hushed for him to make out exactly what was said. He had a good guess, however, that Stevens and O'Toole in particular didn't like the reply because both gave a snigger and insulted Zabini in hushed tones. Determined to find out what in fact the Slytherins were up to, Harry silently crept once again to the door and checked both ways to see if anyone else was coming. The seventh years had already made it up to the top of the staircase and into the Entrance Hall and there didn't appear to be anyone else coming through the hallway from the Slytherin dorms, so he slid out into the hallway and headed quickly up to the stairs.

By the time Harry had reached the top of the stairs, he had his wand on the ready, unsure of where the Slytherins had gone. He sprinted towards the giant doors of the Great Hall, wondering if perhaps they had gone to sit down for dinner, however unlikely he believed that to be. Hearing the great doors creak open behind him, he spun around to see three fourth year Ravenclaws enter, but out the open door he stopped O'Toole and the rest of the seventh year Slytherins heading down the path towards the Hogwarts Gates and the Apparation point.

Sprinting again, he nearly bowled over the Ravenclaws, who shrieked and literally dived out of the way ("Watch where you're going, you maniac!"), he slipped outside and back into the main seating area that had been arranged for Dumbledore's funeral. Harry knew that he was already too late as Blaise Zabini, who now had his hand firmly grasping the arm of Pansy's robes, pulled her through the gates. Harry watched from the top of the steps as Zabini stopped pulling Pansy along, while Pansy clutched Zabini's arm instead while the boy drew his wand. Both disappeared with a soft pop.

The seventh years, while taking a slower pace, were already about three quarters of the way from the main steps at the castle to through the gates and into the Apparating point. Harry quickly decided against hollering for the Aurors to stop them, not wanting to cause a huge incident because he wasn't sure whether or not anyone but Zabini was a Death Eater or even doing anything illegal or not. Students of all ages had been leaving the school regularly since Dumbledore's death. They were fully allowed to do so given that they had informed McGonagall or their Head of House before doing so, and, of course, for younger students their parents had to know beforehand. The Hogwarts Express was making daily trips now for students who lacked Apparation licenses or an adult to manage Side-by-Side Apparation like Zabini and Pansy had done.

Harry knew that at least one group of people would be interested to know that Zabini was a Death Eater and that many other Slytherins were well on their way to being some themselves. He had seen Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks and McGonagall head up to the Headmistresses' Office early after the funeral had finished. Quickening his pace again, he hurried down the second floor corridor towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classrooms, which was the quickest route to the Headmistress' Office that he knew of.

However, he caught sight of a particular bathroom on his way down the hall that made him stop dead in his tracks. Harry went over and stood in the doorway of Moaning Myrtle's second floor girls' bathroom. Luckily, Moaning Myrtle herself wasn't around to distract his thoughts. It was hear that Hermione had brewed the Polyjuice Potion for the Trio so that could sneak into the Slytherin Common room and corner Malfoy about whether or not he was the Heir of Slytherin. Of course at the time, Malfoy himself had been innocent, which was clearly not the case now. It was also in this very room that the entrance to the much hidden Chamber of Secrets lay. With a simple command in Parseltongue, the language of serpents, Harry could enter the Chamber that had housed the Basilisk, the terror of his second year. Later on he had also found Tom Riddle's Diary, better know as Voldemort's first Horcrux, in this very bathroom as well. With the thought of Horcruxes at the top of his mind once more, Harry's uninjured fist clenched. He took one last look at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and then continued on his way.

Rounding another corner, Harry stopped dead in his tracks yet again, but this time for a different reason. Anger swelled up inside himself as he stared into the Defense Against Dark Arts classroom. Sure, it had first been Quirrell's, but he had the little problem with Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head. Then the bumbling fool, Gilderoy Lockhart, had gotten the job. As useless and incompetent as he was, he at least wasn't openly out to get him like at least half of his Defense Professors had been. The best had easily been this third year Professor, Remus Lupin himself. Following him, there was Mad-Eye Moody, or so he thought. Moody, albeit a great teacher, turned out to be Barty Crouch Jr., who was a Death Eater. Of course that was still better in Harry's mind that Dolores Umbridge of the Ministry of Magic. That year was hard enough to forget, but no, it was this past year that Harry was angry at. Severus Snape had taught Defense. As Harry looked around the room, which had different décor every year, he clenched his teeth in rage as he looked upon all the Dark Arts posters and pictures that Snape had put up.

Drawing his wand swiftly, he pointed at the nearest poster and snarled "_Incendio!_" Flames leapt from the tip of his wand and hit the posted, instantly causing it to burst and burn into ashes. "_Incendio!_" he cried again, this time pointing at the next picture on the wall. When there were no posters left on the wall, save a few curled ashes, Harry stood seething in the center of the room. Somehow, he felt slightly more refreshed, but he knew there was one more thing left to do. Pointing his wand and Snape's desk, he slashed his wand forward violently. The jet of light hit the desk on its front, splintering the wood in two and causing it to collapse on the ground as all of the parchment it held spilled out on to the ground. Happy with his carnage for the time being, Harry stepped out of the room and continued on his way to see McGonagall.

He made it all the way up the seventh floor corridor without further incident, unless of course you count the part where he had caught Michael Corner snogging his latest girlfriend, until he passed his usual Charms' classroom when he heard what sounded like someone crying.

Entering the room cautiously with his wand out, he swept over the whole room without seeing anyone, however he was sure that he did in fact hear something. He waited a few more moments and shrugged slightly, heading towards the door.

"Is he gone?" whispered a female voice.

Harry spun around on the spot, his wand trained on Flitwick's desk at the front of the classroom and slowly advanced on it.

"I… I don't… know…" a second female voice replied. Harry could tell that she was crying.

"Quiet… I'll go check… it'll be ok."

Harry frowned, but kept his wand in his hand and trained on the desk in front of him. He was a good five feet away still, but could hear movement and rustling of clothes from behind it. The room was darkened as were all the classrooms when they weren't in use, so he couldn't make out anything in particular.

"_Experlliarmus_!"

Harry barely had time to dodge to the side as the spell flash passed his right side. He ducked a second disarming spell and rolled to the side behind a student desk. He could see a silhouetted figure, wand out, slowly walking up towards him. "Hold on a second! I'm… I'm not here to hurt you!" he called out before he could stop himself. He winced as his attacker immediately turned to face his direction, her wand raised and ready to cast a spell. _Way to go Harry, just give away your position_, he thought futilely.

To his surprise, the girl lowered her wand slightly. He could still hear the second girl sobbing quietly behind Flitwick's desk.

"Harry… Harry Potter?" his attacker asked cautiously.

Harry nodded slowly and slowly stood up with his hands raised and wand clutched far above his head. "I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated again. "I just want to know what's wrong."

The girl's shoulders sagged with relief as she flicked her wand and muttered "_Lumos_," under her breath. The tip of her wand lit up. Harry recognized her as a fourth year Hufflepuff that he had seen around the castle every now and then. She had short black hair, grey eyes and a thin physique. From what Harry had seen her, she was quite kind. "Oh thank Merlin it's you," she said rushing up to Harry and wrapping her arms around his waist, crushing his midsection in a hug.

Harry stumbled back slightly, unsure of what to do. "I… uh… uh… what's going on?" he asked dumbly. He glanced back over at Flitwick's desk upon hearing another sob.

The Hufflepuff girl detached herself from Harry quickly and turned back to the desk. "It's ok, Sarah. We can trust Harry." It took a few seconds before a small girl with shoulder length blonde hair emerged from behind the desk, her eyes, Harry noticed quickly, were streaked with tears. She was still sobbing and shaking until the Hufflepuff girl went up to her and draped her arm around the younger girl's shoulders. The older girl looked back at Harry after whispering a few words to the girl, a Ravenclaw as Harry noticed by spotting the house patch on her robes, and spoke quickly. "I'm Rose Bidwell," she said quickly before adding "I'm sorry I attacked you, but I was worried that it was one of _them_ coming back…"

Harry frowned again, nodding at the Hufflepuff girl as he sat down on the edge of a task, a good two feet from the two girls. He noticed that the Ravenclaw never took her teary eyes off of him, watching him warily. "It's ok," he began, "You didn't know who I was and were just trying to defend yourself and your friend. I'd have done the same thing," he continued, mentally kicking himself for how much of an adult he was sounding like.

Rose nodded and smiled slightly, "I really can't believe it's you. I thought for sure it was one of those creeps coming back. Mum and Dad always said that you and Professor Dumbledore were the only people that I should trust to do the right thing."

Harry's cheeks flushed at the praise and comparison to Dumbledore as he blinked a few times to make sure his tears wouldn't show. Being compared to Dumbledore in that regard was the largest amount of praise he had ever received, and it came from a girl who he had never spoken to before. Still, he told himself, he needed to act strong. "I… uh… who are 'those creeps' and just what exactly is going on," he blurted out all at once, his eyes glancing back and forth from Rose and the Ravenclaw girl under her arm.

Sighing and sniffing back some of her own emotions, Rose slowly lifted her arm off the younger girl. "I think it's better if Sarah tells you, actually," she said before turning to the girl she addressed as Sarah. "Sarah," she said calmly as Sarah herself finally looked back to Rose. "This is Harry Potter. He's a very nice boy and he really needs to know what happened so he can fix it."

Sarah looked back at Harry, her eyes still watery from her crying, but she had stopped since coming out from behind Flitwick's desk. When she didn't say anything for a few long moments, Harry stuck out his hand slowly as if offering her to dance.

"Hi Sarah, I'm Harry Potter. There's no need to be shy, I just need to know what happened to you so I can help you." Harry saw Sarah flinch away from him and he mentally winced, hoping that he could gain her trust.

Rose however nudged Sarah slightly, "Go on. I promise he's not going to hurt you."

The Ravenclaw girl hesitated again, but started to speak softly. "They hung me upside down until I begged them to stop and called me lots of nasty names like 'Mudblood' and… and 'bitch'," she said, barely whispering the last word. She began to cry again and clutch Rose's arm.

Harry wasn't sure whether he was more angered or saddened after hearing the tale. He couldn't help but recall images of the Quidditch World Cup when Lucius Malfoy and some others had decided to torment the muggle campsite manager or when he himself had used the spell on Ron as a test after learning it in from Snape's old Potions textbook. "Sarah," he said calmly and got the girl's attention again. "Do you know who they were?"

Sarah shook her head, tears splashing from her eyes as she did so, "They were wearing their cloaks' hoods over their faces."

"Bloody Death Eater wannabes," spat Harry under his breath, but reddening slightly as he remembered that both Rose and Sarah were present in the room. He was surprised to see, however, that neither Rose nor Sarah flinched at his remarks, possibly having drawn similar conclusions.

"I heard they are really bad men, and are growing really fast. Or at least that's why they said when they… they," Sarah couldn't finish her sentence before she got cut off by her tears.

Harry slid off the desk and moved over towards the two girls. "Rose, I need you to go find Professor Flitwick and tell him what happened. However, don't mention anything about Death Eaters. I'll talk to Professor McGonagall myself about that." He turned to Sarah, who was still clutching Rose's arm, and spoke softly. "I need you to come with me and talk to Professor McGonagall and tell her what happened. I won't hurt you and I need you to trust me, ok?" The girl hesitated a second before detaching herself from Rose and nodding.

"Send me an owl or something after you talk to Professor McGonagall, ok?" Rose asked as she headed towards the door with her wand in her hand. She left after receiving a nod from Harry.

"Alright, let's go then," Harry said as he felt Sarah clutch his forearm tightly and lean up against him. His stomach knotted unpleasantly. _Just what did they do to her?_

Harry led the girl out of the room and down the hallway, keeping his wand out in front of him. He had expected Voldemort and his Death Eaters to be a little more out in the open since Dumbledore's death, but this was far beyond what anyone had anticipated. Students in the school, his classmates for years, were basically doing what Death Eaters did on a regular basis and still within the school. He felt Sarah's grasp on him tighten as she gave another small sob, her head pressing hard against his side as they passed an open corridor. "It's ok, Sarah, we'll almost at Professor McGonagall's office. After that we can get you…" he hesitated and stopped himself from saying 'back to your dorm', which he figured under the circumstances would be a bad thing to suggest. He quickened his pace and hoped that McGonagall would have a good alternative.

He quickly gave the gargoyle the password and let it jump aside before he led Sarah up the stairs and knocked on the door. When he received no reply, he knocked again. After a few moments he simply opened the door and led the young girl into the Headmistress' Office. "She doesn't seem to be here, but oh-" he stopped himself as he noticed a note on Dumbledore's, err, McGonagall's desk.

_Mr. Potter,_

_I have been called away with the Heads of Houses to talk to the Board of Governors. Unfortunately, and I agree with your feelings right now, that this leaves the school gravely understaffed and with, I am sure, more open Dark Activity, quite a dangerous place._

_If you need anything of Albus' from this Office, feel free to take it. If you were coming here requesting my guidance, like Albus, trust your judgment._

_I believe you'll handle any situation accordingly, Mr. Potter. Please keep in mind that the Will Reading will still happen at 8:30 AM tomorrow in this very office, and that you and your friends will be on the Hogwarts Express by 10:00 AM, if, of course, that is still your plan._

_Minerva McGonagall_

"Well, I guess that settles that," Harry mumbled as he re-read the letter a second time.

"Am… am I going to have to go back to the tower?" Sarah asked shyly, tears streaking her cheeks again.

Harry crouched slightly and used the sleeve of his robe to dry the girl's cheek. "No, I think we can make you an honorary Gryffindor until you go home. You'll be safer there than in Ravenclaw Tower, since frankly I'm not even sure what's going on in there." Sarah brightened at the suggestion and hugged his side firmly. "Come on then," he said, guiding her back down the stairs and out of the office, "I'll have to introduce you to the rest of the crowd, but first we've got to take a quick trip up to the Owlery to send a message to Rose."

Harry and Sarah made it to the Owlery without incident, for which Harry was quite relieved as he did not want to fight anyone while trying to protect Sarah at the same time. He introduced the younger girl to Hedwig and gave them a few moments together as he wrote his note to Rose.

_Rose,_

_Professor Flitwick, along with all the Heads of Houses are gone from the school. Sarah is going to stay with me in the Gryffindor Common room until Flitwick is back tomorrow morning._

_Keep Hedwig with you at all times. If you're in trouble, she has been instructed to return to me and lead me to you._

_You may want to head back to Hufflepuff House. I don't expect any trouble from them and you should be safe._

_HP_

Figuring that would be enough to accurately convey the situation, Harry attached his note to Hedwig's leg, explained his instructions and then sent her on her way. Harry and Sarah left the Owlery for the short walk to Gryffindor Tower.

"So, did you like Hedwig?" Harry asked conversationally, having observed that the girl was quite relaxed when stroking Hedwig's feathers, but still clutched his arm firmly as if afraid to let him go.

For the first time since Harry had met her, Sarah smiled slightly. "She's very nice."

Harry cracked a smile in return. "You know, Professor Hagrid bought her for me on my eleventh birthday. She was my first birthday present ever, and my second real friend in my life, after Hagrid of course."

He realized immediately that he shouldn't have mentioned that as Sarah's eyes opened wide. "You never got any presents before you were eleven?" The shock on her voice was evident.

They reached the Fat Lady's portrait, but before Harry gave the password, he crouched down a bit so he could talk to Sarah face to face. "Well, let me explain. You've probably heard how before coming to Hogwarts and finding out about the Wizarding World I was raised by my muggle aunt and uncle, right?" He got a nod in return so he continued, "The truth is that they weren't nice people at all. They treated me very badly and treated their own son, Dudley, very, very well. They ignored every single one of my birthdays and didn't want me around at all. They also tried very hard to keep me from finding out I was a Wizard and they succeeded pretty well until Hagrid broke down their door and told me flat out." He couldn't help sniffle slightly as he remembered the first eleven horrid years of his life.

Sarah apparently had a similar reaction as she let go of Harry's side and wrapped her arms around him in an actual hug, though her head only came up to his chest. "That's awful! I'm really sorry you had to go through that. I only have one uncle and I don't like him either." Harry noticed her eyes were shining with tears again, but he knew that they were tears over his past.

Harry shifted from foot to foot nervously as Sarah released him. He felt as if another weight had loaded itself on to his back. No matter what, Harry still did not like people feeling sorry for him. "Alright. I think we should go in now. You'll be safe in here and you can meet some of my other friends. Well, you've probably already met Luna since she's in Ravenclaw too. I think she'll be in here." He gave the password, as Sarah assumed her place at Harry's side again, clutching his hip nervously.

They made their way through the portrait hole and Harry steered the two of them over to where he spotted Ron and Luna playing a game of Wizard's Chess, but even Ron didn't look particularly interested in it as he had a very solemn look about him. Luna as well didn't seem interested and her normal dreamy, serene behavior was replaced with a far more depressed and serious one. Hermione, Ginny and Neville were all chatting in hushed tones on a couch beside the table that contained the chess match. They too, like Ron and Luna, appeared to be depressed.

Ron looked up first and spotted Harry, but frowned slightly as he caught sight Sarah. "Who's the ankle biter attached to your hip?" he asked bluntly.

"Ron!" exclaimed Ginny as she looked up and saw Sarah, who had pushed herself up against Harry more firmly due to her own nervousness after Ron's comment, "At least have some tact." She rolled her eyes and her brother while Hermione gave him a quizzical look. Luna, however, seemed uninterested and seized the opportunity to take one of Ron's knights with her queen.

"Alright here's the situation," Harry began as he sat down in the middle of a two person couch which was seated across from the one Hermione, Ginny and Neville were already seated on. As Sarah sat beside him, still clutching his arm nervously, Harry wondered where to start. "There are a lot of students supporting Voldemort right now." He waited until the gasps from his friends had dissipated before continuing. "This is Sarah," he said as he needlessly gestured to the growth on his side, "She was attacked by some Death Eater wannabes in her dorm. She luckily got away. I found her and another student in Flitwick's classroom." Hermione and Ginny smiled at Sarah, who in return simply hid her face in Harry's robes.

"Anyways, I took her to McGonagall's office, but as it turns out she, Flitwick, Sprout and Slughorn have all been called away to meet with the Board of Governors until the morning. I don't think it's safe in Ravenclaw Tower right now, especially with Flitwick gone, so I offered to let Sarah stay here with us tonight. Luna," he continued, turning to the blonde haired girl and was slightly pained to see that she looked quite serious and very un-Luna like at. "I don't think you should go back, either." He got a solemn nod in return without comment. "I'm not even sure anymore if all of our DA members are trustworthy. I think its best if we just sit tight until we go home and then we can start worrying about who is working for Voldemort and who we're able to trust. That, however, brings us to our next point, but for now-" he looked down on and smiled at Sarah "- I think I'll teach Sarah how to beat Ron in Exploding Snap."

* * *

Sarah warmed up to rest of his friends fairly quickly, Harry was pleased to see, but what got him laughing along with the rest of them was that the young girl needed no instruction on Exploding Snap at all. She in fact had trounced everyone who attempted to play with her including Ginny, who Harry had never seen lose a game in her entire stay at Hogwarts.

The entire group had gone down for supper and noted that only a few of the staff remained, as Harry had suspected. Nearly the entire Slytherin population was absent, too, which was quite unnerving, but yet a nice relief at the same time. They ate quickly and returned to the Gryffindor Common room at Harry's insistence after he saw Sarah quickly become nervous when a large group of sixth and seventh year Ravenclaws entered all in one large group.

After that Harry began to show Sarah the correct way to lose to Ron in Wizard's Chess. It appeared that after losing two games to Luna in quick succession during the evening Ron wasn't willing to lose again. The Harry and Sarah team only managed to win one game against Ron for the hour that they played and that was only because Luna had taken to whispering move suggestions to them much to Ron's obvious annoyance.

While Harry really wanted to talk to his friends about his plans for tomorrow, including finding a suitable base of operations, tracking down Voldemort's four remaining Horcruxes, discussing who was a trustworthy ally and who was a Death Eater and finally defeating Voldemort and his followers for good, he and his friends, including Sarah, need some fun in their day. Dumbledore's death weighed heavily on all of them and while mourning, in Harry's mind, was a good thing, it couldn't be all he did during the day.

It was around 9 PM in the evening when Sarah fell asleep against Harry's arm. They had been sitting on the couch while Sarah had been reading Hermione's copy of _Hogwarts: A History_. Naturally, Ron instantly noted that reading that book can put anyone asleep to which Hermione quickly scowled at him in reply.

"Alright, Harry, she's asleep. I think it's time you told us what's going on. I know you've told Ron and Hermione, but Neville, Luna and I want to know too," Ginny stated, glaring at him and doing a great imitation of her mother.

"Yeah, and we want to help fight V-Voldemort too!" Neville added quickly.

Harry glanced around and noticed that many students had gone to bed early, and the only other people still in the common room besides the group of seven were the Creevey brothers, who were noisily playing a game of Exploding Snap with some first years that claimed they weren't tired yet. Seeing as they didn't have a good opportunity of being overheard, Harry filled in the other three about his private lessons with Dumbledore, and finally about Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes.

"Blimey Harry, that's nuts," Neville said, shaking his head. "And you went with Professor Dumbledore to destroy one of them?"

Harry nodded. "Except that it was already taken by someone with the initials R.A.B. Hermione has been looking up the initials to the records of Hogwarts students, but hasn't had much time to come up with anything. That's one of our first priorities."

"Well, count me in anyways," Neville added, looking proud. "Gran's been saying all year I'd make a good Auror after she saw my Defense Against the Dark Arts mark and I told her what happened at the Ministry last year."

"Don't think you're getting rid of me that easily, Harry Potter," Ginny said, her face flushed with determination. "I'm coming with you, Hermione and Ron to Privet Drive this year as well."

Harry shook his head to this. "You can't, Gin," Harry began as Ginny glared and opened her mouth to protest. "Your mum would go spare if you even suggested it. Now I _know_ she's letting Ron go, but that's because he's of age now."

"Who ruddy well cares what she thinks! This is important!" Ginny shouted as her face turned red.

Smiling meekly, Harry gave her a slight nod. "We'll get to that in a minute as I have no intention of leaving people behind, but I must stress that this isn't something to be said likely. Ron, Hermione, though I know you already said you'd come with me no matter what, I need you to listen to me. I am now Voldemort's number one target and since I plan on going around destroying pieces of his soul, the risk to myself will increase. Anyone around me also faces great danger as well. I need to know if you're serious about doing this, because I have quite a few plans I need to think over first."

"Like I said before you aren't leaving me behind, Harry Potter!" Ginny said passionately, he facing glowing. "I've fought the Death Eaters twice and I'm not about to stop now just because I 'might' be in danger!" She paused to glance around the six people. "I've been in danger since my first year at Hogwarts and even since my birth since I'm a Weasley." She huffed for a second before adding, "And then, I followed you and fought Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange along with some others in the Department of Mysteries. This isn't even mentioning that I was so possessed in my first year by Voldemort's so called first Horcrux. You are not getting rid of me so easily."

Harry nodded, grateful for her support. He hated asking questions like this, but he felt that it was his duty to make sure they all knew what they'd be getting in to.

"Oh, and for your information, Harry, You and I are still going steady, you great prat. I didn't argue with you earlier because I knew you weren't feeling up to it. Let's face it; I'm on any hit list of Voldemort's already and it won't change just because I'm openly snogging you," Ginny said, blushing at her last sentence as Ron's mouth hung open stupidly.

Laughing a little, Harry smiled warmly. "As you command, Miss Weasley. Seriously, though. That's one."

"Oi, you prat," Ron began as he rolled his eyes. "I'm a Weasley too and have always stood by you. I'm not going to leave now just because I might be marked by some of V-v-Voldemort's ruddy Death Eaters."

Harry smiled inwardly, "Alright, that's two then."

"I already said I was going with you and I'm not about to change my mind, no matter what you say. After all, I've taken enough 'mudblood' comments from Malfoy and his cronies to last me a life time. It's time I showed them what a muggleborn with can do," Hermione said, he cheeks getting a pinkish tint to them.

"Death Eaters tortured my parents. They… they don't even recognize me anymore. I think that's enough reason for me," Neville said, looking down at his legs sadly. Harry agreed.

"Those who fight evil have a better chance of finding Crumple-Horned Snorkacks," Luna commented dreamily. "My housemates are acting like they have Nargles in their pants and are using their treasured intellect for the wrong reasons. I've got to set them straight," she continued, without the dreamy tone. This was probably the most serious Harry had even seen Luna, and she had still mentioned Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Nargles.

Harry sniffed slightly and felt his eyes watering. "Thank you. I mean it, thank you. I know I couldn't do this alone, but I didn't want to force you to follow me. I've got a bigger role in finding the Horcruxes than even the Order of the Phoenix knows about and right now we six are the only ones that know about it. For now, we're going to keep it that way. Ron, Hermione and I will be going back to Privet Drive and find a suitable location for our Headquarters as well as find out who we can trust from the Order or not. After Snape I'm not sure we can trust all their members, so I'd rather not work out of Grimmauld Place." He noticed Ginny about to get up and protest again so he turned to her and smiled. "Ginny, we'll come get you after the 30th of July. That's when Privet Drive's blood protection runs out and we'll be forced to move anyways. Your mum would go spare if you didn't stay with her and Fleur for a least half of the summer. After that you can come and stay with us. Neville, Luna- the same goes for you. We'll come get you after we have our Headquarters established and well protected. From then on we'll fill you three in and then from there we'll devise a plan to locate the other Horcruxes. It's going to be tough, but I'm truly glad you'll be there to help me along the way." He wiped the tears from his eyes with his free arm, the other being occupied by Sarah's head.

"Of course," Harry continued, sighing deeply. "We'll have to be very careful what we put in writing over the next month. We can't simply avoid contact with each other, but we can't be very obvious with it. I want you three," he began and pointed at Neville, Luna and Ginny, "to have an escape plan thought up by the time you get home in case you have trouble. Head to one of each other's houses if you get in to trouble and then alert Ron, Hermione and I of the situation. Also, keep those DA galleons we had before. When we're coming to pick you up on the 30th or 31st of July I'll make them warm up so you'll know to expect us." He got three nods in return. "We're going to teach Voldemort that he's not allowed to walk all over us anymore."

The other five nodded, ready to go the distance and defeat Voldemort at any cost.

* * *

Harry entered McGonagall's office unsure of what to expect. He had never been to a magical will reading, and he wasn't sure whether or not to expect a lot of people. Dumbledore was very influential and powerful in the wizard world since he was both Headmaster of Hogwarts and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

Much to Harry's relief there were only a few people present in the Office. Dumbledore's Pensieve was placed on his old desk and chairs encircled it. It also appeared that the room had been magically enlarged to fit all the people present. Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Slughorn and Sprout were present along with Moody, Lupin, Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt representing the Order of the Phoenix. On the far side of the room, behind Dumbledore's desk, sat Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister of Magic, flanked by two Aurors sitting on either side of him wearing their full dress robes. Off to the side sat a man that could only be Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.

Aberforth Dumbledore looked nearly identical to his late brother, Albus. They had the same crooked nose and facial features and appeared to be about the same height and share the same physical stature. The only difference that Harry was able to determine was that while Albus' eyes were a bright blue and twinkled brilliantly, Aberforth's were more of a dull grey and without the twinkle. Harry thought that Aberforth's eyes were quite familiar, but he couldn't place them. He eventually just assumed that due to Aberforth's facial features he was reminded of Albus.

Beside Aberforth Dumbledore sat Hagrid, who took up two and a half chairs. He took the last available seat between Moody and Hagrid and waited patiently, wondering what exactly was going to happen and why Dumbledore's pensieve was out.

"Ahem," Scrimgeour coughed deeply as he stood up. "We're here to listen to the Will of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbeldore," he stated gruffly, as if everyone in the room didn't already know why there were present. He took out his wand and tapped the edge of Dumbledore's Pensieve three times in quick succession and then sat back down quickly.

There was a large puff of smoke that erupted from the Pensieve and blanketed the entire audience in thick white smoke. Harry couldn't see his hands in front of his face, but as no one else was alarmed he kept his concerns to himself and sat back in his chair.

Within seconds the smoke had cleared and there was Dumbledore, or at least a two foot highly ghostly white representation of him, standing with his feet just touching the liquid in the Pensieve. Harry was quickly reminded of when he viewed the memory of Trelawney giving the Prophecy to him at about the same time last year.

The figure of Dumbledore stood silent for a moment before adjusting his miniature half-moon glasses. "I'd like to thank you all for coming here, because unfortunately I have timed quite an untimely death and have troubled you all greatly. However, I ask that you listen to an old man's ramblings one final time." The ghostly Dumbledore looked around the room and nodded, "I see that Minerva has successfully brought everyone that I requested a few months earlier into attendance." Dumbledore gave McGonagall a small smile and Harry noticed that his Transfiguration Professor was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief that she had in her lap.

"Since I'm sure you all have many more important matters to attend to than listen to me one final time, I'll get right down to business. I'll leave all my worldly possessions and money to one Severus Snape-" the crowd erupted until furiously comments ('An outrage!', Hagrid had bellowed), but Dumbledore's figure merely smiled and waited for everyone to quiet down. When they had, he continued. "- unless of course he had something to do with my most unfortunate death." The room broke into murmurs again and Harry could have sworn he saw the figure's eyes twinkling merrily at him.

"In the case that _Professor_ Snape did have something to do with this Will needing to be read; I will leave all my possessions to my older brother, Aberforth. I am sure that he, like I, does not need so many books and would much rather have many more pairs of warm socks for the winter, alas I must burden him with a long list of items." The figure's eyes twinkled again as Aberforth bowed his head a bit solemnly.

"And now," the ghostly Dumbledore continued, "I must ask for the Minister of Magic to leave the room." When the Minister stayed seated and gave a dismissive wave of his hand and began to open his mouth to speak, Dumbledore continued. "Actually, Rufus, it is well within my rights. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot I passed several such laws that allowed a Witch or Wizard to disallow certain people from listening to a Will. I am merely invoking an entirely legal procedure."

Scrimgeour gave and unintelligible snort and stayed seated. "I doubt he'll mind."

"As I am sure you, Rufus, will not leave the room unless escorted, I will burden Alastor one final time and ask him to remove you from the room by force, if necessary," Dumbledore continued with yet another small smile. Harry could tell that even in death, Dumbledore had recorded a will that he knew would be amusing.

"I suggest you leave now, Mr. Scrimgeour. I won't hesitate to remove you and your two friends. Albus has requested that you leave," Moody said gruffly, his hand on his wand. Scrimgeour gave a non-committal shrug and left the room, his two Aurors hot on his heels.

"Excellent work as always, Alastor," Dumbledore replied merrily. Harry was beginning to wonder if this really was a will recording, but he knew that Dumbledore was very good at predicting situations before they happened.

The figure of Albus Dumbledore turned back to his brother. "I am sorry Aberforth, but I must make an amendment to my last statement. Alas I could not with the Minister present in the room." Aberforth said nothing and merely nodded politely at his brother.

"This concerns young Mr. Potter," Dumbledore began and Harry sat straight up in his chair. Smiling, Dumbledore continued, "I am sure you are all familiar with the claims that Harry must face Lord Voldemort alone. Due to this, I will ask you, Aberforth, to let Harry have any of my possessions that he feels he needs to complete this task before you struggle to find a place to put them all."

Harry's mind was reeling. He tried to think of what Dumbledore may have that he needed, but he was drawing a complete blank at the moment due to the shock of such a statement. He could feel all the eyes of all the other people present looking directly at him. This was more unnerving due to Moody's fake eye being only mere inches from the side of his face.

"Might I suggest, Harry, that you start with this very Pensieve that I am using to deliver my final statements? Surely you have recognized its importance during this last year. I assure you that there are some very important memories in here and," the figure's eyes twinkled yet again as Dumbledore's imaged gave another of his small smiles, "if you look hard enough, you may even find the memory I had of eating my first Lemon Drop."

"And, of course," Dumbledore continued while Harry was thinking over the Pensieve and what other objects he might need, "I am also sure that Aberforth will willingly give anything that the Order desires over to Alastor, and Remus." Harry looked over a noticed that Lupin was trying to hold back tears. Albus Dumbledore had a huge impact on many people's lives. "With that, I must leave you all. However, I expect you not to worry about me. I have faith in you all. Yes, especially you, Harry," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling as Harry had just felt a twinge of panic. "I may have passed away, but I try not think of it as a bad thing. Alas for me, death is but the next great adventure." Giving a small smile, the ghostly white figure of Albus Dumbledore receded back into the Pensieve.

The occupants of the room sat in silence as they tried to keep their emotions in check. They mostly succeeded, except for Hagrid, who was bawling his eyes out and blowing his nose on an oversized handkerchief. They all had one thing in common though; they were all remembering the good times with Albus Dumbledore.

When the group had mostly left, Harry heard a snore from behind him and whirled around to see Phineas Nigellus snoozing in comfortable chair that his portrait had. He quickly looked to the side and was disappointed to see that the portrait of Albus Dumbledore was lacking the former Headmaster himself, but still had a very nice looking chair in it. "But… but…" Harry sputtered sadly.

"Oh don't worry about that, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said coming behind him and staring up at the portrait. "His other portrait is located in Honeydukes as Albus always did love his sweets. I've been informed by Mr. Honeyduke himself that his sales have gone up considerably in the last few days due to Albus' sales pitch," she finished with a small smile. Harry couldn't help but smile himself at the very thought of a picture of Dumbledore helping sell sweets to children.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express was a quiet affair. Harry sat in a compartment with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna with Sarah dozing off against his shoulder again. They spoke very little during the trip and that was only Harry explaining what had gone on during Dumbledore's will reading.

The Pensieve was packed carefully with the help of Professor McGonagall, who knew how to transport such things, in his trunk. He wasn't sure what else he'd need and he really didn't have much time to stay around and look, but both Aberforth Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had promised that they'd be around Hogsmeade and Hogwarts for most of the summer and that he was welcome to come back whenever to continue searching.

Harry had also vowed to leave all his depression and anger at Hogwarts before boarding the train. He knew he deserved time to grieve and fume on his own, but he couldn't let it cloud his mind from his true objective in defeating Voldemort. He realized that this would be an exceedingly hard task without his mind focused at least one hundred percent on his quest.

They were nearing King's Cross station when the compartment door slide open and banged loudly as it hit the end of its track. In walked a girl with long and shiny black hair.

"Hi Harry," the visitor said, smiling warmly. "I wonder if I could have a word with you? In private, of course."

"Erm well… I guess…" Harry said, mumbling. He wasn't quite sure what Cho wanted, but it was probably just another attempt to get back together with him. However, as he was shifting to get up, Sarah quickly grasped his arm and kept him firmly in place.

"Sarah?" he asked curiously, raising an eyebrow towards the young girl as she firmly hugged his arm with a fearful look on her face.

Harry looked back up at Cho and was about to shrug when something clicked in his brain. Glaring at the raven-haired girl, he pursed his lips firmly. "I suggest you leave, Cho, before I don't let you leave."

Cho raised an eyebrow and quickly glanced between Sarah and Harry, looking dangerous. "What if I don't want to?" she asked arrogantly.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry growled, swiftly drawing his wand and pointing it at the former Head Girl. The jet of light shot out and caught Cho in the stomach, pitching her back out of the compartment where she crashed into the side of the train with a thud. Getting up quickly, Harry walked over, half dragging Sarah with him, a few steps and shut the compartment door solidly, causing a loud bang again. He glanced out the window a saw Cho slowly getting up, favoring her back, with a furious look on her face.

"Was Cho one of the people who... you know?" Hermione asked silently.

Harry nodded. "It has to be Hermione, the way Sarah reacted to hearing her voice…" he trailed off as he headed back to his seat, keeping one of his arms protectively draped around the young girl's shoulders. "She'll be better off when we get her back to her parents in a few minutes."

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but when the Hogwarts Express pulled into King's Cross station, the screaming started. Rushing out of the compartment to look out the nearest window facing the station, the group gasped. Part of King's Cross station was on fire and Aurors were everywhere, trying to keep people calm. The group drew their wands, though by the looks of it whatever happened was already over as the Aurors didn't have their wands out.

Harry pulled Sarah along with him mainly because she wasn't letting go and scrambled out the nearest exit, Ron and Ginny in hot pursuit.

King's Cross station was in ruins. There area surrounding the barrier from Platform 9 3/4 was reduced to rubble and there were a lot of blackened scorch marks from spell damage all around the platform. Harry also couldn't help but notice many bodies lying deathly still on the ground with black pieces of cloth draped over them to hide them from view, but above all, the main thing to catch everyone's eye was the large Dark Mark hovering high in the sky.

"Potter." A familiar voice called Harry heard the clunk of a peg leg as Moody came up to his side.

"What happened?" Harry asked instantly. "Why did the Death Eaters attack? How did the battle go?"

Moody shook his head grimly, obviously disgusted. "Wasn't really a battle, Potter. More like a slaughter. Aurors didn't get here nearly quick enough." Moody's magical eye whirled around in its socket before stopping on Sarah. The eye whirled around again and both focused on Harry. "Well Potter," he began, the magical eye glancing at Sarah again, "It looks like we have something to discuss," he said gravely.

To be continued


	2. Of Bonds and Stalks

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 2 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are rapidly becoming bolder and more aggressive. However, those people are foolish if they believe Dumbledore was the final pillar of Light to stand in their way. Harry Potter is still around and more than willing to due what needs to be done.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Thanks once again for your suggestions and beta work, Chris. What would I do without you? Don't answer that, though.

**A/N**: Harry/Sarah will not be getting together romantically. Enough said.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 2: **

**Of Bonds and Stalks**

_"Make way for the heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through …" - the Weasley twins, chapter 12, CoS_

There was a rush of people as the Aurors quickly rounded up the students leaving the train and escorted them over to where their parents were. The scene was chaotic at best, but Harry and the other students knew they were lucky that they didn't pull in during the battle itself instead of when they actually did. While some of the other students were calmer with the way it turned out, Harry Potter wasn't one of them. Mad-Eye Moody stood before him and Sarah, who was half hiding behind Harry to avoid Moody's magical eye and half peeking out curiously to see what was going on.

Moody didn't wait for Harry's reply as his face twitched slightly and Harry thought he actually caught a quick look of sympathy from the old grizzled Auror.

Harry's heart skipped a beat slightly. _Surely… no… they couldn't have_. "The Durselys…" Harry muttered, shocked. "The Dursleys were caught in the middle of this, weren't they?" He didn't have any love for the Durselys, but that didn't mean that Harry wanted them to be killed by Voldemort.

Moody shook his head sadly, "No Potter, those useless muggle guardians of yours never showed up because we told 'em we'd escort you, Weasley and Granger to their house safely."

"But, but… then…" Harry sputtered as his mind reeled and a large lump rose again his throat. _Oh Merlin no_. "You don't… you can't mean that. They couldn't have been caught in that."

Sighing heavily, Moody nodded ever so slightly. The old ex-Auror never showed any emotion, but Harry could tell he was having a decent bit of difficulty getting around to reporting what he wanted to.

"I'm afraid it does, Potter. Miss Williams," he said, moving to the side so he could see Sarah fully, "I'm afraid your parents we're caught in the middle of the attack. I'm sorry." Though it was blunt, Harry suspected that Moody was having a hard time telling her.

"Mummy and daddy are… dead?" Sarah asked softly, letting go of Harry's robes. She stood rigid by Harry's side, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She moved her mouth barely once more, but no sound came out. Hardly blinking at all, she kept staring off into space.

Worried about her, Harry bent down to Sarah's height and softly grabbed her hand. When Sarah didn't move, Harry gulped again, painfully swallowing the lump in his throat, he cautiously tried talking to her. "Sarah?" he asked slowly, "Are… are you ok?" _Oh good one Potter, of course she's not bloody well ok_.

When Sarah didn't reply Harry started to get worried. She had been through a lot of trauma in the last day that Harry feared she had simply snapped. He had heard about it on the news when he was younger. She had been through so much trauma in a short period of time and were unable to deal with it they simply withdrew into a state of shock, more scientifically known as catatonia. Harry placed his hands on Sarah's shoulders, "I need you to talk to me, Sarah." The firmness in his voice was hollow, though, as Harry wanted nothing more than to give her all the sympathy she deserved in such a situation.

Harry had gotten over his parents' deaths rather early in his life and simply adapted to the horrible life living with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and rather large cousin Dudley. However, he knew that this was mainly because any sign of weakness would only have allowed the Dursleys to walk all over him even more. Sure, they neglected, starved and occasionally beat him, but they had failed to fully break him. Harry also knew that deep down he never suffered as badly as the people who lost their loved ones today had, and would, because he had never actually known them, being only barely over a year old when it happened. Some would call him noble, but he flat out denied it. He just moved on when he was forced to and there was nothing noble about that in his opinion.

"Sarah! Come on Sarah…" he said louder, gently rocking the girl by her shoulders. Sarah merely blinked, her eyes glistening as the tears rolled down her cheeks under the power of gravity. Futilely, Harry looked behind him for Moody, who perhaps might have been able to offer him some ideas to get Sarah to snap out of her shock. Instead, he stared off into the chaotic scene as people rushed around randomly, trying to escort and console the students departing from the train. He noticed Ron and Hermione frowning while they talked to Remus Lupin, and didn't find Moody until he happened to look over at the Aurors who appeared to be in charge. Moody was arguing with them about something it seemed, and knowing the ex-Auror it was probably that they weren't vigilant enough.

"Why did they have to die?"

Harry turned back to Sarah and saw, much to his relief, that she had lost her glazed look. Tears were streaming down her face, which was showed that she was obviously distraught and was pink with emotion, as she stared at him with a serious gleam in her eyes. "They weren't hurting anyone! Why!" she asked again, stronger this time.

Harry blinked for a moment as he felt acid rise from his stomach into his throat. He really didn't want to answer, because he knew the reason was absolutely unfair, but she had a right to know. He had wanted to know why Voldemort had killed his parents for years, but no one he informed him. He resigned himself to explain it as best he could as he didn't want to condemn someone to the same years of wonder he had been forced to go through himself. He sighed, his own eyes starting to water as he looked back at the younger girl, "It's hard to explain, Sarah," he began, trying to uncomfortably swallow the acid that was burning his throat. "But, I'll try," he added as he noticed Sarah's expression becoming more fierce and her tears streamed faster. "Come," he said, guiding her hand in hand off to the side where a few benches had escaped the carnage and destruction of the platform unharmed, for the most part, "Let's sit down over here." He sat down on the bench and let go of Sarah's hand, expecting her to sit down beside him, but instead she simply climbed up and sat across his lap, burying her face into his chest, dampening his shirt (they had all changed out of their robes on the train) with her tears.

"You are right, Sarah, it is unfair. I'll tell you the whole truth because I think you can handle it. You're a strong girl that's been through a lot this past day. You won't like what I tell you, but I think you need to know," Harry began, speaking softly and trying to keep his own emotions in check as he gently rubbed Sarah's back as she sobbed into his chest.

Looking up at him again, Sarah sniffled and nodded, "There was no reason at all!"

Harry exhaled heavily. "Well, for you, myself and a bunch of people there was no reason for this, but that is because we're good people and the ones who did this aren't. The reason in their mind is that Muggleborns, or witches and wizards with two non-magical parents aren't as good as them because they're either pureblooded, and usually are lying about it, or half-blooded. I'm willing to bet that everyone who died here were parents of Muggleborns, like your parents, and those we decided to step in and help defend them."

"It's not fair!" the girl wailed again, burying her face against Harry again and still crying freely.

"No, it's not fair," Harry stated simply as he wiped some of his own tears from his eyes. "It's not fair because they were undefended and couldn't fight back, without magic. It's not fair because they all had families that would be devastated by Voldemort's actions. It's not fair because there was just no real reason to do it other than the fact that Voldemort felt like he had to make a statement about how powerful he was. It's not fair because he feels resentment against muggles. There is no good reason other than Voldemort's own delusions…" he trailed off, losing his voice. "It's not fair because no matter what you are, muggle, muggleborn, half-blood, pureblood, magical creature, your life is precious. Voldemort doesn't give a damn about that. He is a lunatic, deranged, and totally, without a doubt, unfair," he finished shakily as he hugged the crying girl firmly, not wanting to let her go.

"But, but… they're gone… I can't believe… they're gone…" she barely spoke, sobbing more into Harry's chest, grateful that he was there.

"I won't say you'll ever forget that, because you won't. I still get sad over my parents deaths and I never knew them properly, but it gets easier over time. I won't tell you to stop grieving, because I know that's impossible this soon, heck, it's impossible to ever stop mourning, and I know you don't want to talk about what you're feeling right now, but trust me when I say you will. And when that time comes," Harry said softly, running his hand through Sarah's long hair, "When you feel that you want to talk about it, I'll be there if you can't find anyone else, ok?"

He felt Sarah nod her head against his chest as he sighed and leaned against the back of the bench. Sarah sat in his lap, leaning against him as she swung her legs lazily off the side, sobbing and sniffling for the time being. _It really isn't fair_, Harry told himself angrily. _Voldemort had no reason at all to do this, he really didn't_. "As a very wise man once told me, Sarah, your ability to grieve and remember your loved ones makes you human. Never forget that"

After several moments of silence, Sarah spoke quietly, "You'll stop him, wont you?"

"Hmm?" Harry replied as he was shaken awake from his thoughts and looked down to see Sarah looking up at him again. She was no longer crying, but her cheeks were still flushed pink and stained with tears.

"Voldemort. You'll stop him right?" she asked anxiously, looking for re-assurance.

Harry nodded firmly, "I have to, Sarah. I cannot let someone like that continue run around freely. That goes for his supporters too. My friends and I are going to stop them if it's the last thing we do. We have to, really. There's no other alternative." He sighed sadly, "And I need to pay him back personally for all the pain he's caused others. My parents died trying to protect me and Neville's parents well, were just as brave and turned up worse than mine, if you can believe it. I'll stop him because I damn well need too."

Sarah nodded silently and lowered her head back against Harry and sat in silence once more.

Harry sighed again in relief that he had probably helped Sarah deal with the situation, at least a bit for the time being. He glanced around the platform again and saw that there was a lot more order now. Most of the students had been taken away from the train and were waiting at the far end of the platform near the ruined barrier in a long line with their parents, if they were lucky enough that their parents weren't hurt or killed in the attack. He gazed down and Sarah for a few moments, watching her slowly breathe. He was glad that she had settled down, at least for the moment. Hearing the rustle of cloaks and the sound of footsteps, he looked back up and saw two Aurors heading his way. One of them was holding what appeared to be a muggle clipboard, which Harry thought was rather odd. Neither of them wore a less than annoyed look, which was all things considered quite expected, but as Harry recognized the Auror holding the clipboard as Dawlish, one of the Aurors that had tried to arrest Dumbledore over two years ago, he figured this encounter wasn't going to be good.

The Aurors stopped a few feet from the bench and sized up the situation. The Auror Harry didn't know leaned over Dawlish's arm and looked at the clipboard, conferred with his partner and then looked back at Harry. "That is Miss Williams, is it not?"

Harry nodded as Sarah stirred on his lap. "This is Sarah, yes," he said with a hint of anger in his voice, detesting the way the Auror had basically referred to her as an object. "What do you need?"

Dawlish smiled slightly and held up a hand defensively, "No need to get angry, Mr. Potter. We're simply here to do our job and make sure Miss Williams gets the help she needs."

"I asked what you wanted with Sarah. Once you tell me, I'll be happy to calm down and let you know if it'll happen or not," Harry replied plainly as he shifted Sarah off his lap and stood up. He noticed Sarah simply followed him and stood up as well, though she stood at his side clutching his arm once again.

Rolling his eyes, the first Auror, a rather large man with a permanently annoyed look on his face, cleared his throat and nodded towards Sarah, "We have to take Miss Williams into Ministry custody until we can get her to her new guardians and let me see…" he trailed off as he looked over Dawlish's arm again and read something off of the clipboard. "That would be her Uncle, Joseph Williams. Well, come along then-"

"NO!" cried Sarah, causing all three other people present to stare at her. She tightened her grip on Harry's arm. "I don't want to go there!"

The Auror blinked for a couple of seconds as if to comprehend what Sarah had said despite it being quite clear. "I am sorry that you feel that way, Miss Williams, but the Ministry, and more importantly Minister Scrimgeour himself, was very clear on what we were supposed to do. Now then, come along," he stated as he moved close and thrust his arm towards Sarah.

Harry quickly pulled Sarah behind him and stood protectively in front of her. "I believe she said that she didn't want to go with you to her Uncle."

The Auror retracted his arm and frowned. "I don't believe that's up to you to decide, Mr. Potter. The Minister was quite clear what we were to do with minors that had their parents or guardians killed in this tragedy."

Harry nodded, but his eyes glared dangerously. "I agree, but I also have to disagree with you at the same time. Sarah obviously doesn't want to her uncle, and I am not about to let the Ministry send someone, after they've just barely received news of their parents' deaths no less, to a place where they aren't wanted or don't want to go to. I am sorry, _sir_, but you'll have to tell your Minister that Sarah will find an alternate place to live." Harry shifted his feet slightly and kept one of his hands near his wand.

Apparently Dawlish had noticed Harry's movement as well and he quickly stepped between the first Auror and Harry and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Alright stop right there, both of you," he said in a weary voice. "This isn't going to help matters at all and you know it." Dawlish turned to face Harry specifically. "Mr. Potter, I am sure you don't like me after my attempted arrest of Professor Dumbledore two years ago, but I assure you I am hearing your concerns," he mentioned, trying to sound like a friend. Harry merely nodded, so he continued. "However, there is a clear policy on what happens to a child that loses their parents without being of age. As Miss Williams doesn't have a godfather, godmother, grandparents or anyone else closer than her uncle, the law says she goes with him."

Harry gritted his teeth and tried to keep his temper under control. Losing his temper now wouldn't help Sarah. "Is that why I was sent to live with my Aunt and Uncle who treated me like less than dirt?" he asked bitterly. Dawlish flinched slightly at the remark, but the other Auror simply rolled his eyes again. "Look," he began in a softer tone, "Sarah told me before that she doesn't particularly like her uncle and I'm not going to see her going to a place where she doesn't want to be, especially so soon after losing her parents." Sarah nodded, her eyes watering again.

"I want to stay with Harry," Sarah said firmly, glaring up at the first Auror with her lips drawn in to a small line.

Laughing cruelly, the first Auror shoved Dawlish out of the way with the sweep of his arm. "I've heard enough of this. Potter isn't even of age yet, and even if he was, I doubt he'd care enough to adopt you right on the spot. No one would," he growled, reaching again for Sarah. "Just come on and let's be done with it. I'm in no mood for games and I've got a lot more to do here."

Harry quickly drew his wand, pointing it at the Auror. He was surprised to see that the Auror had also quickly drawn his own wand at the slightest movement Harry had made. It was a standoff between Harry, who Sarah was trying to make back down and the Auror he didn't know, who had Dawlish telling him to lower his wand.

They were spared the duel when a gruff voice commented "I'd put it away, Bond. Potter here is quite a good duelist from what I've seen." The Auror named Bond nearly jumped out of his footwear at the comment and whirled around on the spot, much to Moody's disgust.

"Merlin Alastor, have you ever heard of introducing yourself," Bond replied, putting his wand away back in its holster when he spotted Moody's look of disgust. He rolled his eyes again, "Oh give it up Alastor. I'm sick of your 'constant vigilance' crap and you know it."

Moody snorted and tapped his magical eye with his wand. "Constant vigilance, Bond. Never forget it. However, I'm not here to lecture you on what you should already know. I'm here to tell you to back off and let the Williams girl go with Potter."

Bond actually laughed at this comment. "Perhaps you're forgetting, _Mad-Eye_, that you retired a while back. It's not that I bloody want to do this, but it's my job."

The magical eye swirled around in its socket and landed on Harry. "Potter, take the girl and go meet Weasley and Granger. I told them I go and get you." He looked back up as Bond started to object and jerked a shoulder at Harry, telling him to go. "I'll take care of the Ministry. You shouldn't expect any problems from them.

Grateful, Harry took Sarah's hand again and pulled her past both Bond and Dawlish. He could have sworn that he saw Dawlish suppress a smile as the Auror watched Moody and Bond argue.

"You have no _right_, Alastor! You cannot simply overrule the Minister of Magic simply because you feel that this… this _boy_ can take care and support a young girl! Not only is it wrong, but it's also disturbing. He's a sixteen year old boy that's going to take an eleven year old girl home to wherever it is he lives!" Bond ranted as his face reddened with anger.

Harry heard Moody grunt as he passed the grizzled ex-Auror. "I guess you really don't know Potter, then, do you Bond?"

He pulled Sarah along quickly before the Aurors could change their minds. Harry strongly assumed that he'd be hearing from the Ministry about Sarah sometime in the near future, but he knew that letting her be taken to live with her uncle was out of the question. If the Ministry could come up with a better solution, Harry would be glad to let her go, if, of course, she wanted to.

The walk to the other side of the platform and the main group of people was a difficult one. The ground was littered with debris and small craters that made the travel slower than it should have been and much more difficult. As they neared some people, Harry spotted some other students slumped and subdued along the wall. The only one he recognized immediately was Justin Finch-Fletchly, but it wasn't a positive thing. Justin had his face buried in his hands and his elbows resting on his knees. To the right of Justin, a mediwitch was trying to get him to talk. Harry felt a large pang of sympathy towards Justin. He had always liked Justin, and was tempted to head over and talk to him, but he knew it was neither the time nor the place.

He found Ron and Hermione continuing their discussion with Lupin just a bit further down the platform, which was starting to clear out now as the Aurors had set up an Apparation point for the students and parents trapped on the platform to exit.

"There you are mate!" Ron called as he looked up, his face rather pained. "Got some bad news to fill you in on, unfortunately."

Lupin nodded towards Harry, "I've got to go help Moody deal with some Order business. I'll leave Ron and Hermione to fill you in on everything, but make sure you all leave together." With that he took off the way Harry had come. With a glance over his shoulder, he saw Moody at the far end of the platform still arguing with Bond while Dawlish tried to calm the situation down.

Harry felt Sarah rest her head under his arm again as he replied to Ron, "What's going on? Did you find out why Voldemort attacked the platform?"

Hermione answered, shaking her head. "We asked Remus if that's what happened, but he said that it was Voldemort most likely making a statement… to well…" she trailed off without finishing.

"Out with it Hermione," Harry sighed heavily. "I've had a long day and I'm starting to lose patience."

"Well," Hermione began uneasily, "Remus said the Order thinks it was made as a statement to you since he knew that you'd be returning today. A flex of his muscle and power." She noticed Harry's face give a pained expression, "But you mustn't blame yourself, Harry! You had nothing to do with this!"

Harry gritted his teeth as the all too familiar lump rose again to take its spot in his throat. "No, nothing at all unless you count being the reason why he did it."

Ron rolled his eyes much like Bond had been earlier, "That or You-Know-Who was just on a training exercise. Remus thought that it might have been a bunch of new recruits since they only recognized the two people in charge," he mentioned offhand as if it wasn't really important.

"Who?" Harry asked.

"Who what?" Ron replied raising an eyebrow.

Harry sighed and tried again, "Who lead them? Was it Bellatrix? I'll get her-"

Hermione interrupted him quickly, "No! No it wasn't Bellatrix, Harry. Remus said it was Amycus and Alecto Carrows. But he mentioned that it's not your fault-"

"- that they got away at Hogwarts," Harry finished angrily. "But he's wrong, it is my fault. I could have stopped them… then Sarah's parents wouldn't have… wouldn't have…" he found himself at a loss for words as he felt Sarah sputter and start crying again into his sleeve. He dropped to his knees, feeling weak. "I could have stopped them…"

As quickly as he had fallen to his knees, Harry was jerked back to his feet by the collar of his shirt. He looked frantically into Ron's angry face, which was a just inch from his own.

Ron dropped Harry on to his feet, nearly causing Harry to fall over, before he shook his head. "You just don't get it, do you? I _know_ you take every thing like this personally, but for the last time _it isn't your fault_. Even if you had caught the Carrows, it would have been someone else here leading. Maybe Bellatrix Lestrange, maybe Snape, maybe Malfoy or his dad, or maybe even V-v-Voldemort himself, but it damn well would have happened." He stared at Harry, seemingly fuming with the typical Weasley red color creeping over his face.

Harry stared at him incredulously, his mouth slightly hanging open. All he could do was nod as Sarah tugged on his arm.

"And," Ron continued, still glaring at Harry, "If you still don't want to believe Hermione and me, I'll go find Ginny and get her to tell you the exact same thing and maybe she'll finally knock some sense in to you, but I suspect she won't be as nice about it as I was."

Sarah tugged harder on Harry's arm, causing him to snap out of his shock. What Ron had said did, of course, make sense, but it wasn't so easy for Harry to forget his feelings. He knew that he took every life that Voldemort or his Death Eaters took personally, and that was because he knew that he was the only one able to defeat him. It was for people like Sarah, he kept reminding himself, that he was fighting for.

"What is it, Sarah?" Harry asked, looking down at her. Sarah merely pointed off towards the bulk of the crowd that was wrapped around the only Apparation point out of King's Cross station. Looking up, Harry noticed Cho Chang enter the clearing that the Aurors had created and disappear with a pop. With that, Harry spotted both Neville and Luna emerge from the crowd almost instantly and head over to where he, Sarah, Ron and Hermione were standing.

"We've been following her ever since she got off the train," Neville informed him.

"And?" Harry asked instantly, desperately wanting to know what Cho Chang was up to, which he guessed wasn't something that he'd like.

"She didn't even spot that cloud that looked like a blibbering humdinger," Luna added.

Neville shrugged, "She was just watching you and Sarah down at the end of the platform for a while and then started to head over to the Apparation point once you started moving down here."

"… it's kinda of hard to make out, with that large Dark Mark in the sky, but you can see it if you twist your head like this…" Luna continued, looking straight up into the sky and twisting her head to the left.

"What about the other Ravenclaws? Were they even on the train?" Harry asked, trying hard to ignore Luna, but failing miserably as Sarah joined her in looking up at the sky, though the younger girl looked quite confused.

"There were some other seventh years that got off the train with Cho, but they all left right away while she stayed behind. Sorry, Harry, but I don't know who any of them are," Neville explained, pointing over to the crowd. "They didn't even show any interest in what had happened. I think they already knew."

"… no, the head is over there, you're looking at the tail…"

Harry nodded in agreement. "I've have to say you're right, Nev. Not much we can do about it right now, but it's quite important." He looked around and noticed that Luna was trying to show Sarah how to spot the blibbering whatever in the clouds and the weird looks that Ron was giving the two Ravenclaws while Hermione stifled a giggle. He frowned slightly, "Where's Ginny?"

"She's over with her dad by the Apparation point. She wanted to stay there in case anyone else suspicious was staying around," Neville answered while pointing to the group of people. Off to the side Harry noticed Ginny standing beside Mr. Weasley, who had, by the looks of it, a small cut along his forehead.

"I guess we should get going. It's getting late and it'll be dark soon, too. My Aunt and Uncle hate when I come home any later than Dudley does, and I don't think we'll need any extra reason to start arguments with them," Harry sighed, thinking just how exactly he and his friends would be received by the Durselys. Judging by how his relatives had welcomed the Weasleys a few years earlier and then Dumbledore two years after that, he knew he shouldn't get his hopes up that perhaps the Dursleys had found some form of tact and hospitality.

After prying Luna and Sarah away from the wonders of cloud gazing, the group headed over to the fast diminishing crowd of witches and wizards waiting to exit the train platform. Harry and the others noticed that there were a few Aurors standing beside a bin that contained a bunch of seemingly random items, but they all knew these were being used to create Portkeys for those who couldn't, or didn't want to, Apparate off the platform.

Harry sent the others to get in line as he walked off to the side where Mr. Weasley and Ginny were standing.

Ginny looked up and, upon seeing him, seemingly lunged forward and enveloped him in a crushing hug. "There you are!" she said hotly, glaring at him. "I wanted to go look for you, but Remus said to give you some time and that you were with Moody so everything was alright, but I was kind of worried and-"

Simply giving a sheepish grin, Harry leaned down and kissed her. She resisted slightly due to surprise, but soon gave in as they both reciprocated the kiss, oblivious to their surroundings. When the two broke apart for air, Harry quickly kissed her again on the bridge of her nose. "Am I forgiven for making you worry?"

Blushing madly the girl nodded eagerly. "But I still want to know what you were doing," she continued adopting a serious look.

Harry sighed as the feeling of sadness and depression that had momentarily returned to weigh heavily on her shoulders. "When we got off the train, Moody was there," he began as Ginny listened intently. "At first I thought he was going to tell me the Dursleys were caught in the attack, but as it turned out it was Sarah's-" he choked on the last word and simply stared, teary eyed, into Ginny's eyes. "I couldn't leave her alone, so we talked for a bit," he finished softly.

"Oh Harry," Ginny cooed softly as she pulled him tighter against herself. "I know you're beating yourself up, but it's not your fault. No," she continued placing her finger over Harry's mouth as he opened it to protest, "No. It's not your fault no matter what you think. It's Voldemort's fault. I want to hear you say it, and then it might finally sink in to that thick skull of yours."

"It was Voldemort's fault."

"Again," Ginny commanded sternly.

"It was Voldemort's fault," Harry repeatedly louder this time.

"Good. Now remember it."

Harry smiled weakly as Ginny stood on her tip-toes to kiss him. A few minutes into their kiss, someone cleared his throat, causing the two to break apart as their faces reddened.

"As much as I enjoy watching you kids have fun," Mr. Weasley began with a hint of amusement on his face, "I suggest you go catch a Portkey out of here before it's too late."

Though he blushed even worse after seeing the look on Mr. Weasley's face, he nodded, gave Ginny another quick kiss good-bye and headed back to his friends.

They were apparently the last students and non Ministry personnel going to leave. After telling the Auror in charge of the Portkeys that there was a slight change of plans, and Sarah would be going with the three of them to Privet Drive, the Auror frowned and had them step off to the side. "I'll have to get clearance for that from my superior," the Auror informed them. "All changes of plans are supposed to be reported. There was supposed to be a clear plan for evacuation of the platform. I'm afraid you'll have to sit patiently until Auror Bond is free to O.K. this change."

Both Harry and Sarah paled slightly at the mention of Bond while both Ron and Hermione gave slight shrugs and then frowned at Harry and Sarah's reactions. Harry quietly filled them in on his encounter with Bond and Dawlish half an hour earlier.

Both Luna and Neville had already departed in two separate Portkey activations by the time Harry spotted Bond swaggering up the platform with a giant smirk on his face. His eyes seemed to gleam triumphantly as he bore down on the group like a predator stalking its prey.

"Alright you four, let's go," a familiar voice said from the exit circle. "Come on now, quickly. We don't have all night you know."

The group hurried towards the platform and met a grinning Tonks, her hair a dark shade of blue. "Wotcher, Harry. Moody filled me in," she explained with a wink as she handed him a broken umbrella. "It'll activate in twenty seconds, so hurry. I'll deal with Bond so don't worry about. Oh, and your trunks should all be at your Aunt and Uncle's place already, or so Remus tells me."

Harry sighed in relief and quickly made sure than everyone got a hand on the umbrella. He looked back over his shoulder to see Bond running towards them screaming something, his face red with anger. Before Bond could get close enough, there was a tug on his navel as the Portkey activated.

* * *

The group landed on the front lawn of Number 4 Privet Drive with relative ease, except for Harry who stumbled as his feet hit the ground and nearly knocked over Ron in the process.

They headed up the front walk, but before they reached the door Harry stopped and held them back. "I feel the need to warn you before we enter. My Aunt and Uncle dislike magic. That much is easily obvious, but they are also very uptight and generally unpleasant people. They will most likely yell at us and call us names, but let us remember that we are quite safe from Voldemort here, so that's why we're staying here even if it is only for a month." He let that sink in.

"Oh, and being polite usually helps, but not always. If you get in to trouble with them, just take out your wand and threaten to do magic. It usually deflates Uncle Vernon pretty fast," Harry finished with a slight grin. He turned to Sarah specifically. "Now, I want you to stay close to at least one of us while you're here, Sarah. They don't know that you're coming so I'm not sure how they'll react to seeing you. Don't listen to what they say, though, since they're always wrong, ok?" The girl nodded, looking quite nervous. Harry didn't really blame her, though, but he knew that she had to be given an idea of what was about to happen.

When they all confirmed that they understand what they were getting in to, Harry turned the doorknob and entered the small foyer handed in hand with Sarah and Ron and Hermione bringing up the rear. "Uncle Vernon? Aunt Petunia?" he called cautiously. He knew they must be still up since most of the lights were on.

Harry quickly realized that he had opened Pandora's Box and wished that he had kept his mouth shut and just led everyone up stairs to get some sleep. Aunt Petunia had come out of the kitchen first and gave the four of them a look of loathing that she usually only saved for dirt that should found in her house. Of course, Harry had always been an exception and the perfect target for hatred.

Eyeing them warily, Aunt Petunia glanced from Harry to Sarah a few times before she stared at their hands. Her lips drew into a thin line. "Is she yours?"

Harry blinked a few times, "Excuse me?"

"Is. She. _Yours_," Aunt Petunia repeated firmly, forcing every word out of her grinding teeth.

Realization dawned as Harry felt his face go red with embarrassment. He glanced down at Sarah and saw she still puzzled, which slightly relieved Harry.

"Vernon!" Petunia shrieked suddenly, "Vernon, Harry has gotten some poor, innocent girl into trouble!"

It only took a few seconds before Uncle Vernon lumbered into the foyer beside his wife. His face was already turning a shade of puce and his fists were already curling into balls. He took one look at Sarah and his eyes widened considerably. "You freak!" he exclaimed at Harry, "Who! Who is the poor girl that you… you…" Vernon started, but seemed unable to finish his sentence so instead he settled with shaking one of his massive fists threateningly.

As Sarah backed up behind Harry, Harry himself felt his temper rise as his own fists balled. It was Ron, however, that said something first.

"Are you bloody well mad?" Ron blurted out incredulously. "You honestly think Harry knocked someone up when he was what, five?"

Much to Harry's amazement, Vernon's mouth opened and closed a few times over, apparently unable to think of a decent retort, though the color in his face changed from puce to more of a dark purple.

"Then why is she here?" Petunia asked in a high pitched shrill, coming to Vernon's rescue. "Those freaks said there would only be three of you when they told us a week ago!"

"Plans change," replied Harry, who was having difficulty keeping his temper under control. However, he kept telling himself that he had dealt with this for years and losing his control now wouldn't help matters any. "She had no where else to go, so I invited her here, I hope it's not too much of a problem," he added bitterly. "Oh, by the way, we'll need to use the guest room as well."

It was Aunt Petunia's turn for her to stare open mouthed in shock, so Uncle Vernon took over. His eyes squinted at Harry as he sized the boy up.

"Absolutely not. You can send your freaks to live in a motel."

Harry sighed, "No, sorry. That's out of the question. There is plenty of space here and there is no point in wasting money."

Vernon's eyes narrowed. Harry knew that this comment had hit home because he was standing up for himself, and because Vernon knew that he had a good point. If there was one thing that Uncle Vernon understood, it was conserving money to the extreme. Harry had to admit the found it ironic that even with this motto, Dudley got every single thing he could possibly want and then some.

"Is she… she… _abnormal_?" Vernon asked, pointing a pudgy finger at Sarah, who was trying her best blend in behind Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"She's a witch, if that's what you mean," Harry said, his anger rising to the top. He knew that he was on the verge of causing accidental magic if this continued much longer.

"Oh good, that solves all our problems then. She can stay in your old room," Vernon replied with a nasty grin forming on his face as he slowly gestured over to the closet on his right.

The light bulb above them shattered in a shower of sparks, causing everyone but Harry to jump up. Harry drew his wand an advanced two paces towards Vernon, his eyes blazing. There was a blur to his left that he barely caught, but the next thing Harry knew, Uncle Vernon was reeling back in shock.

"Don't you ever suggest that again you _horrible_ excurse for a human being!" Hermione shrieked as her hand made contact with Uncle Vernon's cheek. There was a loud slapping sound and Vernon stumbled backwards, shock evident on his face. "How _dare_ you treat people so poorly! I can't understand how you can think that way! You're no better than common thugs!"

Everyone besides Hermione and Vernon watched the scene in silence. Harry couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed that Hermione was the one defending himself instead of himself, but by the same token he couldn't help smiling either.

"Sarah and I will be using your Guest Room, and that is final! Don't even talk to any of us unless you have something civil to say, because I am of age and won't hesitate to you two into garden slugs if you step foot out of line. Do I make myself clear?" Hermione continued, her hand raised slightly.

Vernon glanced at Hermione's hand again, opened his mouth, but then quickly shut it, wisely choosing not to reply. He simply nodded.

"Alright, that's better," Hermione said in a huff as she turned back to Harry, Ron and Sarah. "Let's go upstairs now." The three of them silently nodded and head upstairs leaving a stunned Uncle Vernon and glaring Aunt Petunia in their wake.

* * *

The night went about as well as Harry had expected. He and Ron had taken his normal room while Hermione and Sarah had taken the Dursley's guest room, which was much nicer. Harry had fallen asleep almost instantly because he had been drained from the emotional encounters he had all day starting with the reading of Dumbledore's will and finally having the whole ordeal with Sarah and her parents.

However, he reckoned that he had only been asleep for about half an hour when Hermione woke him up and told him that Sarah was asking for him. It turned out that Sarah was having trouble sleeping, and it was obvious what she was upset about. Harry mentally kicked himself for not having expected this beforehand and simply sat down in the recliner beside the bed. He offered Hermione his spot with Ron, whom he could hear snoring loudly from down the hall. Hermione had refused, but Harry had forced her to take it when he caught her yawning and unable to keep her eyes open.

Harry stayed awake for most of the night talking with Sarah about any number of topics, and eventually she fell asleep after a few hours. He was surprised that she had managed to get any sleep so soon after the incident. Sarah informed him about half an hour later when she woke up crying that she was only able to manage any form of sleep because he was there with her, and thus felt safe. Harry was glad that it was dark in the room so that she wouldn't see his blush and him wipe away a single tear for a feeling he couldn't place.

The morning went fairly well too. The Dursleys, intent on avoiding Hermione at all costs, had apparently eaten early before Uncle Vernon headed off to work, which meant the kitchen was clear for the two witches and two wizards to eat in peace. Breakfast was easily made and went well after Harry and Hermione had managed to keep Ron from destroying everything, since coming from a Wizarding family he had rarely seen anything food-wise made without the aid of magic. While Ron and Hermione were of age and could legally do magic outside of Hogwarts, they had all agreed that they should refrain from doing magic if at all possible. After all, they didn't need to go looking for trouble with the Dursleys.

They ate their scrambled eggs and bacon in silence while Hermione scanned the issue of the _Daily Prophet_ that a post owl had dropped off early in the morning. She ruffled through the pages quickly and then slammed it down on the table, causing everyone to jump slightly.

"Well, it was mostly on the King's Cross station attack," Hermione began slowly, gauging Sarah's reaction. "It gave the death total, but…"

"But?" Ron asked with his mouth full, earning him a kick in the shins from Hermione. Harry winced when he noticed how much food they, and more importantly Ron, were eating. He made a note to take out some muggle money during his next visit to Gringotts, which he planned to make this week. It was only fair that he paid the Dursleys money for food, at the very least.

"_But_, there was something about Harry interfering with the Ministry's control of the situation… and the statement is given by Dolores Umbridge!" Hermione finished, slamming a first down on the moving photo of Umbridge that was also on the front page. The Umbridge in the picture dove out of way and out of the panel.

Harry, surprisingly, merely laughed.

"What's so funny?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.

Harry swallowed his mouthful of bacon before he explained so that he wouldn't choke. "It's just that the Ministry is back to that again, aren't they? Haven't they bloody well realized I'm right yet? Oh no, they have to bring back Umbridge again to start smearing me. Great. Let 'em do, it. I have more important people to worry about than the Queen of Spades over there." Catching Sarah's confused look, Harry explained his past experiences with the Ministry and more specifically, Umbridge the Professor in his fifth year.

After breakfast, Ron and Hermione hinted that they wanted some time alone, given that they hadn't gotten any since the battle at Hogwarts quite a few days ago. Harry reluctantly agreed as they headed out the front door and warned them not to go too far, but pointed them in the direction of Mrs. Figg's house in case they got in to trouble.

On their own, as Aunt Petunia had gone out half an hour earlier, Harry and Sarah unpacked their trunks upstairs. Harry had decided to re-work the sleeping arrangements so that he'd be in a sleeping bag on the floor of the guest room with Sarah getting the bed. He trusted that Ron and Hermione wouldn't get up to any mischief in his own bed, as uncomfortable as it was, since Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would lose it if they realized such actions were going on under their roof.

The only person Harry hadn't seen yet was Dudley and was mentally berating himself for not asking Aunt Petunia where Dudley was before she went out. He supposed that he was simply staying with his friends again, which had been the usual for the past two summers. The doorbell rung down below, which Harry thought was rather odd since everyone in the neighborhood knew that Uncle Vernon was working and Aunt Petunia did her errands like clockwork every morning.

He cautiously headed down the stairs and told Sarah to stay at the top while he checked things out. He reached the front door as the doorbell was rung a second time. Making sure his wand was in his pocket like usual, Harry grasped the doorknob and opened the door. After all, he knew that Voldemort and his Death Eaters wouldn't even be able to approach the house since there was a good chance they want to cause harm to those occupying it.

"Mr. Potter, a pleasure to see you again," Auror Bond replied with a nasty grin. "I'll take your silence to mean that you weren't expecting to see me again so soon." Harry frowned.

"What do you want, Mr. Bond?" Harry asked, trying to act calm and courteous.

Bond rolled his eyes like usual. "Miss Williams, Potter. I want Miss Williams. She is still slated to go to her Uncle as soon as possible, regardless of what you and that blasted Alastor Moody think."

Harry sighed and shrugged, "Well, it doesn't appear as if she's eager to go, or she'd be right down here, wouldn't she?"

It was Bond's turn to frown as he craned his neck around Harry and spotted Sarah at the top of the stairs. He smirked, "Well, I see that she is still here. I suppose I'll just go retrieve her since you seem to be intent on stopping me."

Harry put his arm across the doorway, blocking the entrance. "You're right. I _am_ intent on stopping you because the Ministry is wrong. Sarah should have a choice in this too."

Bond gritted his teeth, drew his wand and pointed it at Harry's chest. "Mr. Potter, I am a Ministry trained Auror and I have been authorized to use force if necessary. The Ministry does not need you interfering in our matters."

Harry drew his wand swiftly and pointed it straight back at Bond. "I will abide by the Ministry's rules when they start to make sense. I will not allow you to send Sarah to live somewhere unless she wants me to."

Drawing his arm back, Bond got halfway through his hex before he was launched by an invisible force clear across the Dursley's lawn and landed in a heap on the opposite sidewalk. He slowly staggered to his feet and sneered at Harry from across the street. He picked up his wand and started to stomp forward, but smacked into a giant invisible barrier. "What did you do, Potter!" he shrieked.

"I myself did nothing at all," Harry started as Sarah peeked out from behind him to see where Bond had gone. "However, there are some powerful wards on this house that protect the occupants. As soon as you intended to harm me in anyway, they simply ejected you. I'm sure you'll find it quite impossible to get through."

Bond fumed on the spot for a second before trying to walk through the invisible barrier again. He was rewarded with a bloody nose for his effort. He glared at Harry and Sarah for a few moments before waving his wand a disappearing with a soft pop.

As Sarah hugged him warmly, Harry couldn't help but blush.

* * *

It was nearing dinner time when Harry stepped out of the shower feeling refreshed. He hadn't realized how long it had been since he actually had one given all the events that had happened one after another over the last twenty-four hours.

Ron and Hermione had returned just after Harry and Sarah had started making themselves lunch looking quite relaxed and pleased. Harry had to stop Ron from mentioning what went on in front of Sarah as Hermione turned crimson. Ron still managed to be quite blunt regardless of how much he aged and matured.

He stepped out of the bathroom and into the cool air, heading for the room guest room down the hall. He changed into a simple t-shirt and jeans and left the room. As soon as he did so, he was accosted and shoved up against the wall forcefully, banging the back of his head painfully. His head slightly spinning, he stood rather dazed against the wall wondering what was going on.

"Looks like Potty is back," chuckled the voice Harry knew to belong to Piers Polkiss, a small instigator of many fights for Dudley and his gang. "Hey Big D, what do you say we play some Harry Hitting for old time's sake?"

Harry struggled to under the grasp of who he assumed was either Malcolm or Gordon, judging by the smell, as the hallway started slowing down. He heard Dudley give a snort of indifference to Piers' suggestion.

"Well, I guess…" Harry heard his cousin reply. Piers cackled in glee.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Potty?" Piers asked him.

"Not long enough, Piers, but it's nice to see you didn't get your teeth knocked in by some eleven year old. Then again, with your face, who'd notice?" Harry snapped back angrily.

"Oh that's it, Potty, you're going to get it this time!" Piers replied as he stepped up close to Harry.

"Leave him alone!"

All give boys turned to see Sarah, who was pointing her wand directly at Piers. Harry mentally winced and wondered if this would actually help the situation any.

"Oooooh, what are you going to do, poke me in the eye with your stick?" Piers shot at her while stifling a laugh. Piers turned to his side when he noticed Dudley stumble back and trip over his own feet. He frowned when he noticed that Big D's face was drained of color. "What's wrong with you?" he asked, annoyed.

"I… I uh… uh… I think I heard my mum coming. We'd better go or she'll be mad," Dudley replied quickly, though his eyes never left Sarah's wand.

"Really? Shit," Piers replied quickly. "Come on guys, let's go." Malcolm and Gordon let Harry fall to the ground none too gently and then followed Piers and Dudley down the stairs and out of the house.

Taking a few deep breathes, Harry looked up at Sarah, who was pocketing her wand, and smiled. "Looks like you're my Heroine, Sarah." Sarah blushed and went over to help him up.

Sarah had only come up to tell Harry that dinner was ready, but luckily for Harry she had shown up at the right time, made Dudley's gang back off and didn't even have to reveal that she was a witch and thus capable of magic. Harry knew that while he wasn't in any real danger since he could simply do some small, wandless magic, this was a far better alternative. After his encounter with Bond he felt that the Ministry would be less than appreciative of having to send Obliviators to bail him out.

Much to Harry's unease, however, the Dursleys were present at dinner as well, though at least they were trying to be pleasant. Of course, knowing the Dursleys, it wouldn't last. Unfortunately about halfway through the meal Harry was proven right.

"So," Uncle Vernon asked conversationally, "You lot are only staying until _he_," he continued jerking a finger at Harry, "turns seventeen?"

Harry nodded silently, not really wanting to say anything back that might provoke his Uncle, since this was actually quite a valid question.

"Good. At least that barmy old codger was right about something then," said Vernon gleefully as Harry slammed his hands down on the table, which caused all the dishes to rattle.

Vernon eyed Harry warily, having seen this reaction from Harry before. "Don't tell me he went and died too? Seems to be a habit with you isn't it? First your godfather and now that… that…" he seemed unable to find the correct word as his brandy glass exploded. He stood up in outrage and pointed a fat sausage-like finger at Sarah. "What's the matter, boy, did you kill her parents too or something? Is that why she's with you? Felt guilty about it? See, I told you Petunia! I told you! The boy is nothing but a murderer!"

The scene immediately turned in to the worst night ever at the Dursleys, which was saying something especially after the situation with Aunt Marge prior to Harry's third year. Following Uncle Vernon's comment, Sarah had immediately burst into tears and Harry had lost control of his temper, which caused many of the glasses and plates to shatter or fracture down the center.

It was actually quite lucky that Hermione and Ron were present because though they wanted nothing more than to hex the Dursleys into oblivion, they knew they had to calm the situation down. This, however, wasn't as easy as either of them thought. It took the two of them over half an hour to stop Harry and Vernon from shouting at each other, which caused most of the glasses and lights to explode. It took another half an hour to get Harry to calm down while the entire time Sarah was bawling uncontrollably. Luckily, once Harry stopped seeing red, he was able to calm Sarah down too.

Hermione had quickly suggested that they go for a walk or something to at least get out of the house. The others readily agreed, so it was the middle of the evening when the group of four headed out of the house and headed down the street towards the park where Harry frequented when he wanted some time alone.

As Sarah swung half-heartedly on the one swing that Dudley's gang still hadn't managed to destroy, the famous trio was close, sitting on the monkey bars.

"So," Hermione began, "How exactly do we go about learning Occlumency? Snape obviously didn't teach you right."

Harry thought for a moment before giving off a hollow laugh. "Well, Snape's method was pretty bad, yeah, but I was thinking of making a trip to Diagon Alley sometime soon. I could pick up some books from Flourish and Blotts that we could use. I also need to go to Gringotts and get out some money so we actually can go look for a place to turn in to our Headquarters." Hermione seemed to brighten at the idea of going to Flourish and Blotts.

A cool breeze swept over the playground causing Harry's hair to stand up on the back of his neck. He shuddered slightly, feeling unnerved. He was sure it wasn't just the wind either. He had the feeling that he was being watched, so he nervously glanced around the park.

It was getting darker by the minute, so Harry couldn't see entirely across the park, but he was sure there was a rustling in the bushes out of his sight. He shook his head as another small gust of wind passed over them. _Get a grip, Harry._ Still, he couldn't get the feeling out of his head that he was being watched.

"I'd be up for Diagon Alley," agreed Ron, who apparently didn't feel unnerved, which reassured Harry that he was simply imagining things.

"And I like to get some new Defense books, or see what else they have there," added Hermione thoughtfully. Harry could almost see the gears working in her head as she planned what books she wanted. She surprised both Harry and Ron when she took out a quill and some parchment she had in her pocket and began writing a list.

"Uh, 'Mione…" began Ron, who was rolling his eyes in a typical Bond-like fashion. "Do you really think you need a list? I thought you wanted to buy a copy of every book anyways." Hermione glared at him and sighed.

"We need to have a list of everything we need to buy and do so that our time in Diagon Alley is kept to a minimum. In case you hadn't noticed Ron, Voldemort and his Death Eaters are really active. It wouldn't be wise for Harry or any of us to be walking around Diagon Alley for long periods of time," she informed him as she scribbled down some more notes and ideas for books they'd need.

"Any idea where we would even find houses up for sale?" Harry asked, never having thought of it before.

Hermione hummed thoughtfully, "No, but we could always ask Remus before we go, right? I'm sure he'd know. Remember we can always buy a muggle house and put the wards on ourselves."

"We'd be redoing the wards ourselves anyways," Harry replied flatly. "I'm not taking any chances with this. I'd also like to stay as far away from Muggles as possible. If in case… well… you know, Voldemort does track us down we wont put anyone needlessly at risk. We need a place in the country like the Burrow."

Ron shrugged slightly. "It's not a problem, mate. Most Wizarding homes are off in the country anyways. The only one I've seen in any muggle areas is Grimmauld Place and I'd figure that's just because it's so old that the muggles built around it."

There was the sound of a twig or two snapping and the rustle of some leaves as another cool breeze swept through the park. Harry glanced around nervously, as did Ron and Hermione. It rustling of leaves sounded closer this time.

"Sarah," Harry called nervously as he got up off the monkey bars. "Come on, I think we should head home." Sarah complied and hopped off the swing, heading over to where the trio was standing. Harry had the distinct feeling that he was being watched.

The group cautiously headed back to the street, but stopped dead in their tracks as they heard a blood-curdling and definitely inhuman howl that chilled them all to the bones. While Sarah clutched Harry's arm in fear, the other three knew better. They had heard these howls only once before, and that was right after the Shrieking Shack incident when Lupin had transformed into a werewolf before their very eyes.

They quickened their pace away from the park, heading down the street and back towards Privet Drive. A second howl, closer this time, came from the area that they had just left. Stepping out of the darkness, stalking its prey, was a drooling werewolf baring its teeth.

"Remus was here on guard duty?" Ron exclaimed as the werewolf stood still and howled up at the full moon.

"Remus wouldn't forget about the full moon, Ron!"

Harry stood rigid and grasped Sarah's hand firmly. "That's _not_ Remus and he didn't forget. That's bloody well Greyback! RUN!" he cried as he pulled Sarah with him and took off down the street, practically dragging the poor girl along with him as Ron and Hermione didn't need anymore convincing and were hot on Harry's heels.

Frantically looking over his shoulder, he saw that Greyback had taken off after them and was closing the distance rapidly. Harry knew they had no chance to make it back to Privet Drive, so abruptly turned down an alley and heading towards Mrs. Figg's house with the group in tow.

They had just exited the alley when the werewolf had skidded around the corner and continue to close the gap. As the group passed the first house on their way to Mrs. Figg's, Harry kicked over some trash bins, desperate to slow down Greyback with anything he could find. Looking over his shoulder again, Harry swore as the werewolf merely leaped over them without slowing down.

Harry led them down a second alley, which was already filled with debris from most likely Dudley and his gang breaking things. He swore again as dodging the strewn items slowed them down. They could hear the werewolf's panting as the slid around the corner and back on to the street, nearly running into what seemed like brick walls.

"Watch where you're going, Potty!" Piers sneered as Harry and the others tore past them. "Where you going to so fast?"

Harry looked over his shoulder and shouted "Run you idiots!" He skidded to a stop, Sarah, Ron and Hermione running in to him. They watched open mouthed in horror as Greyback launched himself into the air and landed on the closest victim he could find, sinking his teeth into the large boy's neck.

Piers, Dudley and Malcolm scattered, screaming in fear as Greyback continued to tear the flesh from their comrade's body. There was another inhuman howl as the werewolf realized that his prey was escaping. Bounding a few steps, the wolf snapped his front paw out and sunk his claws into the back of Malcolm's leg, dropping the boy the ground.

Triumphant, Greyback bit into the boy's back, tearing out a large piece of flesh.

"Jesus Christ what is that thing!" Piers exclaimed in horror from only a few short feet away from Malcolm's body. The werewolf growled at the sound and leapt off Malcolm's body and rapidly closed the distance between itself and Piers.

There was another scream of agony, this time human, as Greyback the werewolf sunk his already bloody teeth into Piers arm and jerked his head to the side, tearing the arm from the body in one fast movement. Piers collapsed to the ground howling in pain as Greyback's slashed his claws over the rat-like boy's neck. The screaming stopped instantly because the boy's vocal cords had been severed. With the annoyance silenced, Greyback looked back up at his next target.

Dudley stumbled backwards as the werewolf eyed him with hunger. He took another step backwards and tripped over the curb of the sidewalk and fell painfully on his backside. The werewolf slowly stalked its way up to him and without the slightest hesitation sunk its teeth into the large boy's leg. Dudley howled in pain as Greyback raised a paw to silence him like he had done with Piers, but stopped as an old soda can bounced of his back.

Growling, the werewolf turned around just as two more old soda cans bounced off the ground beside him.

"You'll understand if I don't thank you for suggesting this idea, right?" Ron muttered as he threw another can at the werewolf, which was already changing targets.

"Would you rather I let them all die?" Harry shot back bitterly as he nearly wretched, having glanced at Piers' body a second time. He pushed Sarah back towards Hermione. "Stay back, Sarah. If anything bad happens… well… just run and don't stop."

Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at the werewolf. "I think its time we used magic, Harry."

Greyback let out another wolfish howl at the moon, causing a small chunk of flesh to drop out his mouth and on to the pavement, before slowly stalking towards Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Sarah as blood dripped from his mouth.

To be continued


	3. In Light of current events

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 3 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are rapidly becoming bolder and more aggressive. However, those people are foolish if they believe Dumbledore was the final pillar of Light to stand in their way. Harry Potter is still around and more than willing to due what needs to be done.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: In addition to being an excellent beta and helping me organize my thoughts, Chris also decided to tell me what I'd be doing if he hadn't convinced me to actually write this story: "Looking for good Luna fanfiction, sadly he would find his effort to be futile as there is none, and thus you would never been seen again."

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 3: **

**In Light of current events…**

_"Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily -- weak people, in other words -- they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!" - Severus Snape, Chapter 24, OotP_

"I am honored to serve you, Milord"

Voldemort lazily flicked his wand towards the kneeling recruit. "Crucio!" The sound of screams filled the air for the twenty-fifth time that night.

The young man at Voldemort's feet withered in pain as Voldemort refused to lift the curse until nearly a minute had passed.

"Rise, my faithful servant," Voldemort commanded. The Death Eater shakily got to his feet. "From now on you are mine to command. I will expect absolute loyalty."

The Death Eater nodded and when Voldemort released him, he walked over to the row of new initiates into the Dark Lord's service. The group in a whole shifted uneasily now, wondering what would be next. All of them, while not directly in contact with Voldemort himself, had expressed loyalty and interest in the Dark Lord's ideals and had held their heads high when promoting the ideals, but now where starting to second guess their actions. However, as a few had found out before, there was not second guessing your choice to enter the Dark Lord's service. If one attempted to back out, he or she would be killed.

Severus Snape, on the other hand, knew he had played his cards correctly. He had played off of both sides perfectly ever since he had realized the Dark Lord was plowing recklessly ahead when he didn't fully understand what he was dealing with. The Prophecy, as Snape had partially heard, was to bring about the Dark Lord's downfall. Throwing all caution to the wind, the Dark Lord had attacked and met the fate he had asked for. Snape had then defected to insure his safety from prosecution.

It was funny how things worked out, Snape mused as he watched his Dark Lord give a terrifying speech to his new recruits. The longer he had stayed with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, he was sure that he had originally picked the wrong side. For years he had been Dumbledore's right hand man, his faithful spy in the midst of un-captured Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy, but then the Dark Lord had come back. Snape then knew that he was in trouble, but he had chosen to stay at Dumbledore's side unofficially because the Dark Lord was still weak and struggling to regain his former powers and support. However, mere weeks ago, Snape had to choose his side yet again. He knew that he really didn't have a choice due to his Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy, but he had still chosen. Dumbledore had been foolish and weak and had forced him to rethink his unofficial side. Being the Master Occlumens he was, Snape was absolutely sure that neither side knew that he was playing them both. Of course, on the flip side, perhaps both knew what he was doing, but figured the information he was giving each of the two rivals was better than what the other was given. It was a dangerous game, but one that had paid off for many years now.

Voldemort had finished with his rant and sent the Dark Mark up into the air as his Death Eaters kneeled before him. Far below the cliff where they met, the sea crashed up against the jagged rocks mercilessly. Snape couldn't help but smirk behind his white mask as he rose on Voldemort's command. He had done the deed that many others in the Dark Lord's service had thought impossible. Granted, it was supposed to be Draco Malfoy's task, but having completed it he had instantly gained a lot of respect from even the Dark Lord himself.

Most of the Death Eaters began disapparating in soft pops as Voldemort dismissed them with a wave of his hand, but Snape and a few others had stayed behind. These were the members of Voldemort's Inner Circle, but they were missing a few members that happened to be locked away in Azkaban Fortress at the moment and heavily guarded by Aurors. The group followed their master into the building that stood directly near the edge of the cliff.

The house itself looked like it could possibly collapse at any moment, given the way the wood was being continually rotted away by the fierce winds and salty spray from the sea below crashing into the cliff itself. The outside was covered in a disgusting green moss, while the inside of the building was littered with broken furniture, loose floorboards and had cobwebs hanging from everything. Snape had to admit it was the perfect place for any Dark Lord to hang out.

"I will get directly to the point," Voldemort began as six figures completed a small circle with him. "Snape, why did you kill Albus Dumbledore?"

Years of dealing with both Voldemort and Dumbledore had given Snape a political mask that was far better than anyone else's, but even this shocked him quite a bit. "Milord, I did it for my own pleasure. I saw the opportunity and wanted to do it," he said as he stepped forward into the circle and kneeled before Voldemort's feet.

"The assignment was given to young master Malfoy, not you."

Snape could feel his master's eyes burning into the back of his skull as he kept his head facing towards the ground as if to kiss the hem of Voldemort's robes. "I realize this Milord, but years of being on his beck and call had made me very angry. I had come to assist Mr. Malfoy and the others when I happened to see Dumbledore there, weak and suffering." Snape imagined Bellatrix Lestrange was having a great time listening to this. "I assure you, Milord, young Mr. Malfoy had disarmed and cornered Dumbledore before I had arrived."

Voldemort pondered this for a moment before asking for Snape to rise. "Look into my eyes, Snape. You know by now that I can always tell when someone is lying to me..."

The two locked eyes for several moments, and though he didn't show it, Snape was quite nervous. While his Occulmency shields were arguably some of the best in the Wizarding World, there was no underestimating the Legilimency ability that both Dumbledore and Voldemort had and did possess.

Apparently satisfied, Voldemort broke into an eerie grin. "You have done well, my servant. Dumbledore was a very annoying thorn in my side for far too long, but at last Snape and young master Malfoy have done something that none of you dared attempt for me," he said, scanning the room and making the other give occupants shuffle on the spot. He waved Snape back to his spot, but when the Potions Master stood up and turned his back, Voldemort pulled out his wand. "Crucio!"

Twitching in agony, Snape rolled around on the floor. Despite having the Cruciatus curse put on himself many times during his years of servitude to the Dark Lord, one never did get used to the feeling of hot knives piercing and cutting your skin. After what seemed like an eternity, the spell was left and Snape immediately brought himself back into a kneeling position, facing his master.

"Yes, you have done well, Snape, but you also disobeyed my command. Do not let it happen again."

"Of course not, Milord," Snape said stiffly as he rose and headed back to his place in the circle. It wasn't unexpected that he received punishment for killing Dumbledore instead of Draco, but it certainly was better than death for not completing his vow with Narcissa.

"See to it that young Mr. Malfoy has a second test of his ability. He seems to have managed to get away without completing this one," Voldemort said, talking directly to the Death Eater on his left.

"It shall be done, Milord," Bellatrix Lestrange replied with a hint of pride in her voice. She always did like the way her nephew was living up to his family's expectations, but she would not let him skip out on any duty like her sister, Cissy, seemed to think it was ok to do. Then again, Cissy had always been the one to shy away from action. Bellatrix shuffled her feet again, "Milord?" she asked daringly.

"Yes Bella?" Voldemort answered, sounding quite amused.

"I know it is not my place to question..."

"In my Inner Circle I am open to suggestions, Bella, or have you forgotten that?" Voldemort replied.

"No Milord, I have not forgotten," Bellatrix began, trying to gain up the confidence to say what she wanted to. "As you know many loyal servants, my husband among them, are still in Azkaban-"

Voldemort waved a hand and she stopped abruptly. "I have not forgotten, Bella. This is merely part of their punishment for failing to retrieve the Prophecy. However, you are correct. The time has come to release Rodolphus and the others."

"Thank you, Milord," Bellatrix said while kneeling in front of the Dark Lord, her head bowed.

The Dark Lord's attention shifted to another Death Eater, who stood beside Bellatrix Lestrange. "What is the status of the mission I gave you?"

Kneeling swiftly before his master, the Death Eater replied at once. "Everything goes on schedule Milord. You shall have your army by the date you requested.

"Excellent," the Dark Lord mused as he turned around and looked out the large bay window, which looked out over the edge of the cliff and over the raging sea below. His eyes lingered on the full moon breaking through the clouds. "And of Fenrir's mission?"

The kneeling Death Eater chuckled slightly, "I was overseeing from a distance as you requested, Milord. Greyback succeeded in being near Potter and his friends when he transformed. I left immediately after I saw Greyback chase after Potter, gaining rapidly. I have no doubt that he would have succeeded in mauling Potter and his friends in a rather bloody fashion by now." The Dark Lord growled slightly, but beckoned the Death Eater to continue. "Milord, I am sure that Greyback has succeeded! Even full grown wizards cannot handle werewolves well-"

Voldemort cut off the Death Eater with a glare from his red eyes. "Silence. I, on the other hand, have little hope that Greyback will succeed in his mission. Potter is far too resourceful to be stopped by something so simplistic, but yet..."

"But Milord! You cannot honestly believe-"

"Crucio!" Voldemort shrieked, shooting a red light out of his wand to strike the kneeling Death Eater.

"My... my... lord! Please... please stop!" the Death Eater pleaded before he cried out in pain as he lay sprawled and spasming on the ground.

Voldemort finally broke the connection and glared again at the Death Eater. "Never question my judgment."

"Of... of course not Milord," the Death Eater wimpered.

Looking around the small circle, Voldemort eyed them all in turn. "If anyone else has anything to tell me that will upset me, I suggest you do so now."

Severus Snape surprised everyone, including himself, when he stepped forward into the circle.

* * *

"Stupefy!"

The spell shot from Hermione's wand missed by mere inches to the right of the werewolf. Upon realizing he was under attack by more than old soda cans, Greyback launched forward at the group of witches and wizards. He nimbly ducked under a second spell and continued to close the gap rapidly.

After seeing Hermione's lead, Ron whipped out his wand and shot his own stunner at the beast galloping towards him. Unlike Hermione's shots, Ron's was aimed a few feet in front of the werewolf and looked to be about to hit dead on as Greyback closed the distance between himself and the spell's target area.

Giving an almost human grunt, the werewolf leapt into the air and safely passed over the red jet of light, which hit the ground underneath him and left a small black scuff mark on the pavement, and landed perfectly. Greyback was only a few feet short of his targets when he got grazed by a second stunner sent from Ron in his front left leg. The leg stiffened slightly, causing the werewolf to trip and skid head first along the pavement.

"Run!" Harry yelled again, finally realizing that everyone was simply standing in one place. He grabbed Sarah's hand and pulled her down the sidewalk towards Mrs. Figg's house.

Hermione fired off another Stupefy at the downed werewolf, but it managed to roll out of the way just in time. She grabbed Ron's sleeve and attempted to pull him along, but he held firm. "Come on, Ron! We have to go!"

Ron shook his head as shot a cutting hex at Greyback, who had gotten to his feet again and moved a few paces backwards. "He's faster than us, 'Mione, he'll overtake us in a second! _Diffindo_!" This time the spell managed to shave off some of Greyback's cheek fur, but otherwise left the werewolf unharmed.

The werewolf, however, simply charged again after getting hit by two more minor cutting hexes from both his attackers. The trickle of his own blood from two open wounds on his cheek and front shoulder didn't bother him in the slightest as he leapt into the air again, dodging a Reducto curse from Ron.

Gritting his teeth, Ron shot off another Reducto at the approaching werewolf, but he knew he was running out of time. "Run 'Mione, I'll hold him off!" he shouted over his shoulder as stared into the werewolf's moonlight reflecting eyes.

"But-"

"Go! I'll be fine!"

Just as Hermione opened her mouth to argue again, Greyback sprang forward the rest of the distance with his jaws gaping wide open to take a large bite of the girl's throat.

"_Accio Greyback_!"

The werewolf's jaws snapped closed, only managing to bite into the empty air beside the girl's face, as he felt himself getting pulled quickly to the side by an unseen force.

Standing across the street from Ron and Hermione, Harry jerked his wand to point behind him. He ducked barely in time as the werewolf came sailing through the air towards him, snapping his jaws and managing to slice through some of Harry's hair, and crashed hard into the sidewalk.

Greyback bounced off the cement slightly and collided with thorny bush that someone had planted in their garden. He got unsteadily to his feet and shook his mane of hair. Slowly he stalked forward, his mind entirely focused on tearing some delicious flesh from the messy black haired boy before him.

Harry staggered back a few paces as the werewolf bore down on him. "Incendio!" he cried as he thrust his wand forward towards Greyback and unleashed a spout of fire directly into the werewolf's face.

Howling in pain, the werewolf clawed at its own face attempting to put out the smoldering hairs. The air thick with the smell of burned fleshed and hair. Greyback shook his head again and took off down the street away from Harry as Ron and Hermione shot similar balls of fire towards the fleeing werewolf, but failed to hit it.

"Thank Merlin you thought of that-"

"Save it Hermione, we have to get to Mrs. Figg's and alert the Order and the Ministry," Harry interrupted and sighed, heading quickly down the street to collect Sarah from where he had left her.

Ron and Hermione followed Harry, but kept a keen watch over their shoulders and kept note of their surroundings in case Greyback returned, however unlikely it was. Werewolves, like regular wolves, have an instinctual fear of fire.

The group finally reached the house they had been trying to get to and Harry rapped loudly on the door with his knuckles, praying that Mrs. Figg wasn't a heavy sleeper. They all glanced down the street nervously until the lock on the door clicked and Mrs. Figg opened it a crack.

"We need to use your fireplace to contact the Order!" Harry said quickly as Mrs. Figg wiped the sleep from her eyes.

The old lady complied without comment and opened the door to let them all in. She grabbed some of the floo powder that she always kept on the mantle in case of emergency and tossed it into the fire.

"Number 12, Grimmauld Place," Harry said as firmly as he could manage. Now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off his was feeling quite shaky and jittery.

It took a few moments before Tonks' head appeared in the fire. "Wotcher, Harry," she yawned before catching sight of his shaking. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"We were attacked by a werewolf; it had to have been Greyback-"

"Were you or anyone else bitten?" she asked quickly.

"No we're fine, but Dudley and his friends were… oh Merlin I left Dudley out on the street-"

"Hold on," Tonks cut him off again as her head disappeared for a few seconds before re-appearing. "Alright, I'm going to Apparate to the Ministry and get some other Aurors, Obliviators and Healers."

Harry hesitated and glanced out the window.

"Harry, do _not_ go back outside. Greyback could still be around and he wouldn't have transformed back yet. I want you to stay at Mrs. Figg's house with everyone else-" Tonks began, but stopped as she saw Harry move away from the fire and head towards the door. "Damn it, Harry," she said as she disappeared from the fire again.

Throwing open the door, Harry hurried outside and down the front walk, seemingly oblivious to the cries of Ron and Hermione. He looked over his shoulder, "Stay put, Sarah," he said firmly as he broke into a slow run, wand in hand, and headed back down the street towards the place where the attacks had taken place.

"Dudley?" he called when he was halfway down the street and able to see the fainted outlines of the three bodies lying in the street that belonged to Piers, Malcolm and Gordon. He couldn't spot, however, the lump that Dudley should have been on the sidewalk where he had fallen.

"_Dudley_!" he shouted, louder this time, as he reached the area. Harry felt sick to his stomach as he now had time to fully comprehend the carnage that had happened mere minutes ago. The bodies of Piers and Gordon had their throats slashed to pieces or simply torn out, while Malcolm was missing a decent chunk of his lower back. Under all three of the bodies there was a rather large pool of blood that reflected the large full moon that hung above in the sky.

"You can't just run out here like that, mate," Ron said as he finally caught up to Harry and stepped up to his side. "It's still dangerous."

Harry ignored him and continued past the bodies, calling Dudley's name every few steps. With a bad bite on his leg, Harry wondered just how the boy had managed to get so far away.

There were a few pops behind Harry, so he turned around quickly, wand out, to see Aurors and other Ministry personnel Apparating on to the scene with Tonks at the front of the pack.

"Harry! I told you to stay inside!" Tonks yelled as she ran over towards the two boys.

"But Tonks, I couldn't just leave him…"

Tonks gritted her teeth. "Leave this kind of thing to the Ministry, Harry, you did your best, but there's just nothing you can do right now."

"Dudley's missing! I don't know how he could have gone far… Greyback bit his leg…" Harry continued, ignoring Tonks, much to the young Auror's annoyance.

Frowning, Tonks grabbed a hold of Harry's shoulder and spun him around to face her before staring directly into his eyes to make sure she had his attention. "Listen to me, Harry. We'll find Dudley because, as you said, he couldn't have gone far. Right now I need you to stick around for a little bit so we can ask you and Ron some questions on what happened here tonight."

Harry nodded as the Aurors and Healers began to swarm the area. He watched the Healers levitated the bodies of Piers, Malcolm and Gordon and Apparate away with them. The Aurors on the other hand were wandering around the area and making notes on the different scorch marks and blood spatters. Harry was rather glad to see that Bond was not among those documenting the crime scene as he didn't want to have to deal with him wanting to take Sarah away again.

It took a while, but finally Dawlish approached Harry and Ron, who were sitting on the curb in silence, watching the scene. He smiled weakly at the two boys and conjured a muggle clipboard with parchment already attached out of thin air. "Unfortunately I've got to ask you guys exactly what happened tonight, for the official Ministry record. I know it must have been hard to see all of this happen the first time around, but I need you to relive it for a few moments."

"We were in the park," Harry started, speaking softly. "It was later at night and Hermione suggested we go for a walk to get out of the house after a fight with my Uncle at dinner."

Dawlish scrawled some notes down on the parchment and nodded, "And then?"

"We heard rustling in the bushes across the park," Ron replied as he realized Harry was having a hard time retelling the story. "We didn't really think anything of it, but then we heard it again. Harry told us we had to go, because he noticed it more than Hermione and I, I guess."

Harry sighed, "It felt like I was being watched the whole time, but I figured it was just my imagination."

There was more scribbling on the parchment as Dawlish recorded all of this. "And then the werewolf chased you?"

"There was a huge howl and Greyback jumped out of the bushes. He was basically waiting around us so he could transform and attack us," Harry spat bitterly.

Dawlish hesitated for a moment, "Well, if it really was Greyback I doubt he was after you guys specifically." He caught confused frowns from both Harry and Ron so he continued. "You see, we've been dealing with Fenrir Greyback for years. He usually doesn't have a specific target in mind when he goes out, but he does select the areas. He likes to target areas of his enemies and rivals just to frighten them. If he bites people around his intended target, it makes the target more nervous since there are werewolves around and so on. It's highly likely he just came to Little Whinging and general and then happened to spot you and your friends."

"Greyback said he likes to bite children though. He probably knew that Sarah was-" Harry stopped himself as he looked up at Dawlish and realized his mistake.

Looking over his shoulder and spotting no one, Dawlish leaned in towards Harry and Ron and kept his voice low. "Don't worry about talking about Miss Williams in front of me," the Auror said quietly. "I'm rather glad she is being taken care of by those who actually want her. I checked up on her uncle this morning and found that he wanted nothing to do with the girl. You may have saved her quite a few years of torment." He stood back up, leaving Harry with a weird feeling. "Now then, yes Greyback likes to bite children, but I highly doubt this was aimed at anyone in particular. You ran, obviously, but how did your cousin and his friends get involved?"

Harry snapped his mind back to the question at hand instead of pondering Dawlish's words about Sarah. "We ran through an alley trying to get to Mrs. Figg's so we could contact someone. Just on the other side of the alley we passed Dudley and his friends. There was barely any time to warn them. They never had a chance," Harry recited slowly as the guilt began to weigh down his shoulders.

"We've yet to locate your cousin, but as you told Miss Tonks earlier he can't have gotten very far away for the condition he was in," Dawlish replied with a small, but very fake, smile. "I'm sure we'll find him before the night is up and we still haven't even heard back yet from the Aurors we sent over to your house. It is possible he went home and his parents took him to the local Hospital."

Harry nodded without speaking and turned his attention back to the pavement. He simply listened to the rest of the questions that Dawlish asked and let Ron answer them all, who seemed a lot less bothered by the whole situation than Harry did. Then again, Ron was always the one who didn't mind a little glory time, though Harry doubted Ron was actually enjoying this.

"You _summoned_ Greyback towards you just as he was about to bite Miss Granger?" Dawlish asked Harry, who snapped his head up from gazing at the pavement sadly, after hearing Ron's tale of how they fought off the werewolf.

"I… uh… yeah I guess," Harry mumbled. Truth be told he really hadn't thought about what he did, he just knew that he had to move Greyback out of the way in a hurry. He suspected that it was because Hermione had spent a lot of time teaching him the summoning charm in his fourth year that it was the first thing that popped into his mind.

Dawlish raised an eyebrow at him. "That's pretty amazing, Mr. Potter, if I do say so myself. I hope you are still seriously considering joining us as an Auror after you graduate," the Auror replied and wrote a long note on his clipboard.

When Dawlish had finished with Harry and Ron, he went over the Tonks and spoke to her for a few moments and then returned, giving Harry the distinct feeling that Tonks was in fact in charge of this case. "Alright, Mr. Potter. I'd like to speak with Miss Granger and Miss Williams, if that would be alright. Auror Tonks says they're at Arabella Figg's house still. Is this correct?"

Harry nodded absentmindedly and led Dawlish down the street with Ron in tow. He approached the house slowly and saw that Hermione was watching the scene down the street from Mrs. Figg's bay window with her wand still in hand.

It took Dawlish only ten minutes to take all the statements he needed from both Hermione and Sarah. He explained to the group that this was because the girls had pretty much repeated the same things as the boys did, and he was just verifying the statements and seeing if either of the girls remembered anything extra.

"Auror Tonks will be here in a few minutes to discuss with you what options you have open tonight," Dawlish said as he headed towards the door.

"Options about what?" Harry asked suspiciously. He reminded himself that at least he was being given a choice of what he wanted to do, but he couldn't help but wonder whether or not any of them would actually be appealing.

"Where you'll spend the night, at any rate. I myself don't think it would be safe for you four to return to Privet Drive tonight, or even stay here. Auror Tonks assured me that there were many options available to you, though." With that Dawlish headed outside.

Harry collapsed onto Mrs. Figg's old couch, feeling quite exhausted. He turned to the side and noticed that Sarah had sat down silently beside him looking quite tense. Harry sighed at the thought of how much she had dealt with in the last thirty-six or so hours. He slid over beside her and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "It's ok now, Sarah. I'm sorry that my life is like this…" he trailed off as Sarah snuggled into his side again.

"It's not your fault," the girl mumbled in reply.

"It is my fault because Greyback wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for me," Harry shot back hotly. "No matter what you people say, it was all my fault."

Ron rolled his eyes. "You have got to be kidding me, mate. You heard Dawlish. Greyback has done this kind of thing for years because he enjoys it."

"Oh yeah, and I suppose he just happened to pick Little Whining and just up the street from Privet Drive on a whim?"

"Well, I suppose not," Hermione replied thoughtfully. "But this is why we're fighting against Voldemort, right? To put a stop to attacks like this. As much as I hate to say it, or even think it, this is probably just the beginning."

Harry held his head down in resignation. "You're right. This is why we're doing this and I cannot let it bother me, though I know it always will. I also chose the path we took to come here, though. I led Greyback straight to Dudley."

"But you were doing it to save our lives," Hermione chimed in, looking at him hopefully. "And then later you saved mine again with your quick thinking… I could have ended up like those other boys if it wasn't for you."

Harry sighed again. "You would have done the same for me, Hermione, and you've helped me many more times than I've helped you these last few years. Can we just call it even?" He got a nod in return and noticed that she was getting teary-eyed.

"And mate," Ron began again, "Don't think I was kidding when I said I'd get Ginny to knock some sense into you if you keep acting like this."

Cracking a small smile at Ron's commenting, Harry relaxed slightly back into the corner of the couch. He was saved having to think of a good comeback when Tonks entered, looking exhausted.

"Alright, I don't have much time since I'm due to make a report on this situation to the Minister in around fifteen minutes, so we'll make this short," Tonks began as she eyed the four kids seated in Mrs. Figg's living room. "I don't think that it's safe for you lot to go back to Privet Drive tonight. We couldn't find Greyback and it is possible he's still our prowling around. I'm going to ask you to come stay at Grimmauld Place, at least for tonight, until we get everything sorted out here. If you don't want to, I won't try to stop you, but I'd really like to make sure you're safe."

Harry nodded glumly. So far his entire plan had more than a few wrenches thrown into it. First there was Sarah, and though he definitely wasn't regretting anything he'd done involving her, he disliked the fact that being with him was putting her in a lot more danger than she would have been in living with muggles. The second was Greyback's attack here. He wanted to spend as little time around the Order of the Phoenix as possible because he had heard that the Ministry was trying to interfere with it. He made a note to ask Remus, Moody and Tonks tomorrow just what was going on. "I guess we'll stay at Grimmauld Place," Harry replied after a few moments. "I doubt I'll be Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's favorite person right now."

* * *

Immediately following Harry's decision to spend, at the very least, the night at Grimmauld Place, Tonks had escorted the group of four back to Privet Drive and helped them get some clothes and other items together. When they had their arms full of everything needed, Tonks created a Portkey which sent them all spiraling into the entranceway of Grimmauld Place.

Harry was much too exhausted to feel the pain of being in his godfather's old house after he had passed away. Without speaking the group simply headed upstairs to the bedrooms with each of them getting their own room, even with Tonks and Remus having taken the master bedroom.

Having quickly changed into his bedtime apparel, Harry yawned and laid down on his bed with the events of the night playing over and over in his mind. He was certain that the Dursleys would never allow him to set foot inside their house again, which meant that the trip he was planning on taking to Diagon Alley would have to come sooner than he would have liked. He also wanted to have a little chat with Remus, Moody and Tonks when he was here because he had a bunch of unanswered questions.

It wasn't until after lunch, which was prepared quite easily by Ron and Hermione who were able to do magic, that Tonks and Moody entered Grimmauld Place together. Both looked tired, but it was easily apparently that Tonks hadn't slept at all last night. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot from lack of sleep with dark circles underneath. Her hair was messy and back to her regular state as well.

"Wotcher, guys," she said half-heartedly with a wave and collapsed into a seat at the table, resting her head on her arms.

Harry was already bursting to talk to her, but he could easily see that she wasn't in the mood. He calmly ate his breakfast while Moody scanned the house with his magical eye. When everyone had eaten, since Hermione had sense to prepare extra incase any of the Order showed up, Harry nervously approached Moody, who had just finished eating his food last of everyone because he took so much time inspecting it, to which Hermione kept rolling her eyes and scoffing.

"Erm, Professor Moody?" he asked carefully as the magical spun and locked itself on Harry's position.

"I ain't your Professor Potter, never was. I told you to stop calling me that," he growled.

"Alright, Moody, could I have a word with you?" Harry asked carefully.

Moody nodded and stood up. "Anytime, Potter."

Harry sighed, relieved. "I know Tonks is tired, but can you get her and come up to my room in five minutes? I want this to be private for now." Moody nodded, so Harry headed out of the kitchen while ignoring the questioning looks from Ron, Hermione and Sarah.

Tonks and Moody arrived alone, as promised, almost immediately. They were both looking curiously around as if it was some sort of trap.

Harry waved them both to sit down, "I've got to talk to you guys about a number of things on my mind," Harry began. Neither Moody nor Tonks gave any sign of stopping him, so he continued. "This is hard for me, and I can't tell you everything… right now anyways… so I need you to trust me." They both nodded instantly.

He paced back and forth in front of them silently and gathered his confidence. Harry was trying to keep his nerves down, but he had so much on his mind that he was feeling overwhelmed. He stopped and stared at a picture of a Black family member on the wall when it hit him. "Why are we still using Grimmauld Place? Now that Dumbledore's d..d.. gone," he stammered and held back his emotions, "wouldn't the Fidelius Charm vanish? Can't Voldemort just walk right up here now?" He realized he should have recognized this before he had fallen asleep, but hindsight is always perfect, he had to remind himself.

"The Fidelius is gone, Potter, but you own the house now and only gave the Order permission to use it. The Fidelius was only needed so that all of the Black's family friends didn't come calling," Moody answered immediately, hiding a sense of amusement, Harry was sure.

"But then why did we need Fidelius in the first place? Sirius owned the house," Harry said, frowning.

"No, he didn't," Tonks began, seeing Harry's frustration. "Sirius lost any rights of control over the house when he was sent to Azkaban," Tonks explained sadly. "So did Bellatrix Lestrange, which means the next person in line was Narcissa Malfoy since my mum was wiped off the tapestry, but luckily Narcissa and the Malfoys never thought about the house. When one because convicted of a crime and sentenced in Azkaban they forfeit any control over any property they possess. It becomes frozen."

"Then why was Dumbledore worried that Bellatrix would get the house?"

"Because, Harry, you're only Sirius' godson. You weren't actually part of the direct Black family line. Dumbledore didn't know how Sirius' Will would stand up. If it didn't stand up, the either Bellatrix or Narcissa could simply walk in uninvited. You own the house though, and you can disallow entry to whoever you want to. That's the only explanation," Tonks said as if she was continuing to piece it together in her mind right now. "You-Know-Who would have been here already to destroy this place if he could get here through Bellatrix," she mused further. "And of course, Sarah was never given any right to enter the house, except by you, so I think that says we're quite safe. That's also why they couldn't enter, I guess."

"They?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"The Ministry," Tonks replied. "They've been trying to get into here for a long while. Ever since Sirius was sent to Azkaban, at the very least."

This however only brought up another important question in his mind. Harry was surprised that he had never seen it before, but with everything happening at the time he supposed he should cut himself some slack. "Tonks, what is going on between the Ministry and the Order?"

She stiffened at the question, but Moody looked the same as always.

"What do you mean?" Tonks asked slowly.

Harry felt his anger rise. _How dare she deny it_. "I understand why you were at the platform," he said glaring at Tonks, but he turned to Moody. "But why were you there, Moody, and why was Remus there."

"Minitry's interfering with the Order now that Dumbledore is gone. Scrimgeour wants to be in control of all the fight against Voldemort. He's basically got the entire Order roster and has 'em reporting to him. That's why we haven't gotten your or your friends to join up yet," Moody replied instantly, yet again. Harry was sort of frustrated and resentful that he didn't get this many straight answers when he asked two years ago.

_Times change_, Harry thought with a sigh. "Then my mind is definitely made up," Harry said as his pacing came to a halt. "I can't tell you everything… I just can't," he began to muttered. "You both know I was taking private lessons with Professor Dumbledore last year, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Harry continued. "I learned some very important things. Things about myself and Voldemort and what needs to be done." His breathing became more rapid. "I can't do it alone, and Ron, Hermione and the others who came with me the Ministry know as well. They've all agreed to stay with me and we're not returning to Hogwarts until this is all over."

Tonks looked like she wanted to do nothing more than to object, but settled for squirming in her seat while Moody stayed silent and followed Harry's movements with both of his eyes. If Harry had been paying attention to the people in front of him instead of plotting out what he needed to do, he would have noticed the smallest curve of Moody's lips appear for a moment.

"I need to know if you're with me. Remus and Professor McGonagall too. You're the only four I trust in the Order right now to keep secrets. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley mean well, but I can't see them just letting me do what I need to do," Harry said bluntly. "I'm sorry that I can't tell you everything right now, and maybe not for a while, but I still need to know…"

Tonks stirred, but Moody spoke out first. "I've always had your back, Potter."

Harry sighed with relief at Moody's backing. He glanced back over at Tonks, who was still squirming nervously from her spot, seated on the edge of Harry's bed.

"Of course I'm with you, Harry," she said finally, but continued after, "But you have to know that we can't just go and join you wherever you are…" she hesitated again. "You see, the Ministry, in addition to making us work together with them, is keeping tabs on us all. If we start dodging the Order to work with something else, they've already threatened to simply haul us to Azkaban."

Harry's eyes widened, "But how?" he exclaimed. "That's insane!"

Tonks gave a hollow laugh. "Scrimgeour wants full control over the war, which is about time, but he doesn't want us doing anything 'shifty' or undermining his authority. It doesn't matter, though, Harry, I'll help you with anything I can and I'm sure Remus will too."

The boy nodded slowly and found his mouth had gone dry. He didn't really have time to think of what Scrimgeour's insane reasoning might be for limiting the movements and actions of the Order of the Phoenix instead of the Death Eaters, but that was the least of his concerns. He had more important things to do like track down Voldemort's Horcruxes. With that thought, his brain sparked. His eyes widened slightly and he turned to Moody.

"Moody, I need to go to Azkaban."

Moody's eye whirled back and stared at him intently. "Are you mad, Potter?"

Harry began to pace again, "No… at least I hope not. You see… the part I can't tell you… argh… you'll just have to trust me. I need to go and visit Lucius Malfoy."

The ex-Auror frowned, "I won't ask, Potter, but it'll take some time. I have some favors I can call in."

"Thanks, Moody," Harry said nodding, relieved. "Trust me, it's worth it. Oh, that reminds me. I'll also need to know everything you know about the Death Eaters. Who they are, what their status is and all of that. I thought you guys had Greyback…" he trailed off.

"He escaped when everyone was tailing Snape. We thought he was stunned well, but no one was really thinking about it. Werewolves break out of stuns faster, much like giants have better magic resistance. The stunner wore off by the time we got back," Tonks said sadly. "He made his way back through that infernal cabinet. I… I'm sorry."

Harry sighed and shook his head, trying desperately to keep his emotions under control. "No, it's not your fault," he said firmly, though it was more for his own benefit than hers. "I think… I think Bond might be a Death Eater," he said with a sigh.

Moody let out a deep laugh. "Bond a Death Eater? Don't make me laugh, Potter. He's not the most pleasant man around. I know this full well, and I know why you don't like him, but he'd be one of the last people to become a Death Eater." Harry gave him a questioning look.

"You see, Potter, Bond is a real stickler for the rules and doing everything by the book now and there's a good reason for it. During Voldemort's first reign, Bond was a young Auror and his partner happened to be his best friend since his first year at Hogwarts. Bond and his partner were assigned to go scope out a house that had the Dark Mark floating above it," Moody growled in bitterness. "His orders were just to check out the outside and nothing more, but then he heard someone moving around inside. He went to check it out and his partner followed. They figured it was someone that was left alive, but it was really two Death Eaters that weren't done mutilating the corpses. The Death Eaters got the drop on them and ended up killing his partner. Bond got away, but he's always played absolutely everything by his orders and the Auror Code ever since."

Despite how much he disliked Bond due to the man's actions over the last few days, he couldn't hate him any longer. If anything, he felt quite a bit of sympathy for Bond having been in similar situations himself. The main one being where Sirius ended up dying because he, Harry Potter, was foolish enough to fall into a trap. "I'm going to get my own headquarters. I'll start looking for locations when I go to Diagon Alley today or tomorrow. If what you say is true, Grimmauld Place might not be the best location after all… it has too many horrible memories."

"Good idea, Potter," Moody said firmly as he headed towards the door. "I've got to be going, I'm due to report to our Minister right now." There was a creak of the door and he was gone, though both Tonks and Harry could hear his peg leg clunking all the way down the hallway.

"Tonks," Harry said, causing the Auror to look up. "Go get some sleep, I've got to think some things through."

Tonks smiled slightly and headed towards the door, "We'll stop him, Harry. I have faith in you." And with that, Tonks disappeared down the hall to the master bedroom.

* * *

It was only a few minutes later before Harry was reporting the encounter to both Ron and Hermione in hushed whispers as Sarah was amusing herself somehow by scribbling down what appeared to be a long essay on a huge roll of Hermione's parchment.

"So what are we going to do, then?" Ron asked as he frowned. "We can't really use the Order for help."

Harry gave a determined smile. "No, maybe not the Order of the Phoenix."

The bushy-haired girl gasped, "Harry you don't actually mean that you're planning on…"

Harry nodded. "Yes, we're going to make our own Order. Just the six of us, though, for now. Tonks and Moody will help us as best as they can, but they really aren't in any position to do so without getting locked up by the Ministry. I was thinking about doing this before when I talked to you all at Hogwarts, but now it is final. We just need a name…"

"The Order of Righteousness?" Hermione suggested.

Ron guffawed and bent over laughing, "Isn't that a little too fancy, 'Mione?" he asked as he tried to stop himself from laughing when he saw that Hermione wasn't amused.

"Sorry, 'Mione, but can you imagine saying that?" Ron said, but Harry was too deep in thought to notice.

"The Order of Light," Harry said firmly.

"What was that?" Ron asked.

"The Order of Light!" Harry said, louder and determined this time. "That's it! The Order of Light!"

"Now _that_ is a name," said Ron with a touch of awe in his voice. "Righteousness, right. By the time we learned our name V-v-Voldemort would have won already… OW-" Hermione smacked him in the back of the head before he got to finish his thought.

In his mind, Harry had already begun to formulate most of his first plans. He would create his own Order with just the six of them that followed through with their Dumbledore's Army training. He would take the fight to Voldemort's Death Eaters whenever it was needed and hunt down all of Voldemort's Horcruxes. He was lost in thought as Ron and Hermione bickered about this and that. "Ron, Hermione, can you please leave for a bit?"

The two stopped bickering and blinked.

"Sure, mate. We'll go get on the Floo with Fred and George. Maybe we can Floo to their shop when we go to Diagon Alley," Ron said as he grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her out of the room.

"But, Harry," she mumbled looking over her shoulder. She looked quite concerned.

When his two friends had left the room, Harry turned and headed over to where Sarah was sitting on the couch and sat down beside her. "You heard all of that, didn't you?"

The girl nodded and looked up at him. Her eyes were watering again and she simply threw her arms around Harry's chest and hugged him.

Harry was caught off guard and instantly forgot what he was planning on saying. "I… uh… what's that for?" he asked completing the hug.

"I heard what you were going to do!" she cried. "I don't want you to die too!"

He felt his heart sink. "Well, you're right when you think it's going to be dangerous, but I have to do it." He remembered what he was originally going to talk to her about and sighed. "Sarah, I don't think it's a good idea for you to stay around me. You wouldn't have to go with your uncle, though. I am sure Mrs. Weasley, Ron's mum, would let you stay with them-"

"_What_?" Sarah cried, pulling her head up from Harry's chest. "But I want to stay with _you_!" she sobbed, tears now streaming down her face.

"I know you do, Sarah, and I don't want to just leave you behind, but you saw what happened last night. That was all because of me. Your parents and the train platform, too. It's all because I was going to be there," Harry said, his own eyes watering now.

"I don't care if it's dangerous!" she cried out, "You just don't care about what I want! He was right! No one wants me!" Sarah got up quickly and stomped her way towards the stairs, tears streaming down her cheeks again.

"No! I do care, that's why I am trying to keep you out of danger!" Harry called after the girl as there was a thud for each stair she climbed.

"_No you don't_!" Sarah yelled, her voice sounding very distraught, from the second floor. There was a loud bang as Sarah slammed the door to her room closed.

Harry felt more than a little hurt as he headed up the stairs, but upon knocking on Sarah's door and trying to open it, he found it was locked. He tried to knock the idea of using Alohomora to open the door out of his head, figuring that Sarah needed some time to cool off.

He headed down the hall and poked his head into Ron's room, who was thankfully alone. "Ron, can we talk for a second?"

"Sure mate," Ron replied as he closed the door behind Harry with a wave of his wand. "What's on your mind?"

"Promise you won't tell Hermione?" he asked, and received a nod from Ron in return. Harry began to explain his conversation with Sarah. "She doesn't care about any of the danger, it's like she just wants to be apart of it! She's being stubborn for no reason!" he said, half fuming and half concerned.

Ron, however, apparently wasn't any help as he burst out laughing. As Harry glared at him, the redhead still took around three minutes before he could talk. "That's great, Harry, that's really great," he said still trying to keep his laughter under control. He smiled when he saw Harry fuming at him. "Oh open your eyes mate, she's just acting exactly like you!"

"I do not act-" he stopped and thought about it for a second. His face flushed slightly as he remembered how he had been acting for the last two years. "Well, this is… this is different," he mumbled, quite embarrassed.

"Different?" Ron squeaked, hardly maintaining his laughter ban. "Oh let's see. She wants to be around danger, she's stubborn and she won't take no for an answer. She's exactly like you."

Harry heaved a pillow at Ron and then sat down, barely being able to continue fuming. "Oh shut it," he said as Ron continued to stifle laughter.

"So," Ron said, his tone more serious, "what are you going to do?"

Sighing heavily, Harry told Ron what he was going to do, but made him promise not to speak another word to anyone until he had it all planned out.

* * *

It was only an hour later when Harry, Ron and Hermione set foot in Gringotts. They had taken the Floo to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes shortly following Harry's discussion with Sarah and then Ron.

Sarah, who was still upset with Harry, had chosen to remain at Grimmauld Place, though she was warned by Harry yelling through the door to her room that if anyone entered the house she was to wake up Tonks immediately.

As he approached the counter of Gringotts, Harry breathed a sigh of relief that Sarah hadn't come with them.

Diagon Alley was looking even worse than it had before. More shops had closed and the only colorful building around was the twins' shop. There was only one group of people that the trio had passed on their way to the wizarding bank, and when the people realized that it was Harry Potter of all people walking past them, they stopped and huddled. The group had whispered things about why Harry was out shopping in Diagon Alley when he should be saving them all from Voldemort and why there was no hope for them at all since Dumbledore had been killed.

At these comments Harry's anger had risen considerably, but Hermione had taken to her old Potions chant of 'Ignore them, Harry, just ignore them'. He managed to keep control of his emotions, though it hadn't been easy, when they arrived at Gringotts, which Harry was rather relieved to see contained no one other than Goblins and a few security trolls.

He approached one of the vacant tellers and waited for the goblin to look up. "I was wondering if you had some form of… credit card, for galleons?" Harry asked, feeling rather foolish.

The goblin eyed him for a moment before reaching under the counter and producing a velvet bag that had a large golden G embroidered on the front. "This is what you are looking for, Mr. Potter. This is a bottomless money bag. You simply reach and pull out as many galleons as needed. The galleons are taken directly from your vault."

"Perfect," Harry said, smiling. "Except I need six of them altogether."

The goblin eyed Harry suspiciously before reaching down and pulling up give other similar bags, but with different colors. "Please place the bottom of the bag on your palm, Mr. Potter," the goblin said, moving the red bag forward.

"Wait," Harry said as he took the bag from the goblin. "This will be taken from the Black family vault, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter, we have received word about your godfather's Will. The bags will be tied to the Black vault if that is your wish."

Harry nodded and took the bag in his palm. He felt prick on his palm, and then a slight warmth.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter, you may remove the bag now."

He pulled the bag and put it into his pocket, and noticed that his hand had a small cut that was dripping a small amount of blood. "Keyed to blood?"

The goblin snarled slightly, "Of course, Mr. Potter, otherwise anyone who comes into possession of the bag would be able to steal your galleons."

"And can I key the other bags to my friends myself, or will that have to be done here at Gringotts?"

"It can be done yourself, Mr. Potter. Simply instruct them to hold any un-keyed bag in their hand and the process shall be automatic."

Harry thanked the goblin and headed back out to where Ron and Hermione were waiting. He handed Ron the golden colored back, while Hermione selected the white one on her own.

After both Ron and Hermione were keyed, Harry led down both down to Flourish and Blotts, which was unsurprisingly empty, given the way the rest of Diagon Alley was. They entered the shop and Hermione frowned.

"Harry, there's nothing in these money bags," she say, holding it in her hand.

Harry smiled slightly, "Well, Hermione, that is a very special bag you have there. It just so happens that it's connected directly to the Black family vault, which I am told holds quite a substantial amount of galleons. You can simply pull out as many as you need."

Hermione's eyes lit up as she pulled out her shopping list. "Alright then, first we need a book on Occlumency…" she muttered as she disappeared down into the rows of shelves.

Ron was still staring in awe at the bag in his hand. "Wow… thanks mate," he said softly as he placed the bag in his pocket.

"Don't mention it," Harry replied as he watched Hermione race around the bookstore and drop books off by the twos and threes onto the counter. "I can just imagine how Sirius feels knowing we're using the Black family fortune to fund the war against Voldemort."

Ron clapped him on the shoulder as Hermione dropped off a bunch of books on countering the Dark Arts. "Probably pretty good, I'd imagine." Harry couldn't help but agree.

Half an hour and over fifty books later, the trio left Flourish and Blotts with the books expertly shrunk by Hermione so that they fit in her pockets without any difficulty.

"They didn't have any books on Wards, though," Hermione told them as they walked to the next location that Harry had in mind. "I think they've just sold out of all those, especially in the last few days, but at least I did get the ones we needed on Occlumency and shield charms!" She continued to talk Ron's ear off happily as Harry led the group to Madam Malkin's robes.

"What do we need new robes for? I thought we weren't going back to Hogwarts." Ron asked as they entered the shop.

"Think of this as a little thing for the Order," Harry said smiling as he walked over to the long wall displaying robes. He sifted though the many different styles available as Ron and Hermione watched with puzzled looks.

"Aha," Harry said as he pulled out a robe that was suited to more than just casual use. It was a combination cloak and robe that would be useful for just about every situation. He took the cloak up to the front of the shop and handed it off to Madam Malkin, who glared at him, obviously not having forgotten the confrontation between him and Draco Malfoy about a year ago. He leaned in and whispered to her.

Madam Malkin nodded and headed into the backroom carrying the robe Harry had taken to her.

Smiling, he headed back to where Ron and Hermione standing and waited patiently leaning against the wall of the store.

"Are you going to clue us in?" Hermione asked, somewhat impatiently.

Harry shrugged, "You'll see in a few minutes."

To her credit, Madam Malkin worked quite fast and within twenty minutes returned from the backroom carrying rather large boxes, which she was balancing in a stack as she made her way across the room. She opened one of the boxes and pulled out a pure white cloak, identical in all but color to the one Harry had pulled off the rack.

"One size fits all," Madam Malkin began proudly. "It automatically adjusts to the wearer after he or she puts it on. Automatically has heating or cooling charms depending on the weather and is resistant to really minor hexes. Still, better than nothing," she continued as she handed the cloak to Harry, who put it on.

Ron and Hermione gave him thumbs up, but Hermione pointed to a pink heart patch on the right upper arm.

"What's that for?" she asked, eyeing it closely.

"Well," Harry began, more somber now. "It's something I asked Madam Malkin specifically to add to all of the cloaks. Snape once told me that those who wear their hearts on their sleeves would be easy prey for Voldemort. I intend to prove him quite wrong. They're also a reminder of those we've lost already and who we're fighting for. Despite what Snape says, we are fighting with our hearts."

The others agreed silently and tried on their cloaks for a few minutes before returning them to their boxes.

Harry took off the cloak and put it back in its box, not really wanting to create a panic to the few people in the streets by walking out wearing the opposite of a Death Eater cloak. He also didn't want to tip his hand that he wasn't exactly joining the Order of the Phoenix.

The group made their way towards the only wizarding property retailer in Diagon Alley, but stopped abruptly when they saw the shop boarded up.

"Great, now what," moaned Ron. "That's the only bloke I know around here that sells houses."

"We can use a Muggle retailer, Ron," Hermione informed him sharply. "We were going to ward it ourselves anyways. Plus, it's probably not a good idea to leave any hint to where we're living in the Wizarding world at all."

"Well, I guess we have nothing else to do here, really, and I'm sure Hermione wants to crack open all those books so we should really head back," Harry said as he ignored a glare from Hermione.

"You should be studying them too!" exclaimed Hermione with a pink tint in her cheeks.

Ron smirked, "As if you'd let us slack off now of all times?"

"When has she _ever_ let us slack off, Ron?" Harry asked, purposely trying to rib the girl.

There was a huff behind him as Hermione defiantly refused to talk to them about what she had planned for them to study. Naturally her silence only lasted a few minutes at best since she bursting to explain.

"Just tell us already before you explode, Hermione," Harry said with another slight grin.

Hermione explained what they'd be studying to them as they headed back to Fred and George's shop to Floo back to Grimmauld Place.

However, despite the fact they made it back to Grimmauld Place without any troubles, they were quite unaware that their visit to Diagon Alley had been monitored.

**To be continued**


	4. Articles of Concern

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 4 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are rapidly becoming bolder and more aggressive. However, those people are foolish if they believe Dumbledore was the final pillar of Light to stand in their way. Harry Potter is still around and more than willing to do what needs to be done.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris is a great beta… or so I think… possibly.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 4: **

**Articles of Concern**

_"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." - Winston Churchill_

It was a few days later that Harry found himself in his second Occlumency lesson of the summer. Hermione had pushed that they start immediately and, unlike at Hogwarts, both Harry and Ron were ready to put in a complete effort immediately as soon as the bushy-haired witch suggested it.

Much to Harry's surprise, however, Occlumency actually was learned much like Snape had tried to tell him, but with his friends instead of one of his least favorite people in the world trying to he had managed to capture the basics rather easily.

Occlumency in general was just getting your mind into a state of relax and, even as Snape put it, organizing your thoughts. With your mind strong and organized you would be better prepared to defend yourself against a mental attack of those trying to search through your mind.

The three of them felt the progress was going rather slowly until Hermione had suggested that they try a technique that consisted of muggle meditation. Since Snape and the book they had purchased on the subject both suggested that you only practice after you have calmed your mind, the morning was the best time to practice. However, Harry and the others wanted to perfect the technique as soon as possible so Hermione suggested using the relaxing method to practice more often.

Harry was having the most difficulty with this because whenever he let his mind wander while meditating it always came back to one topic, or rather one man. In addition to plotting how to vanquish the Dark Lord, Harry had been feeling his scar prickle ever so slightly the last few days as it always did when his connection to Voldemort was active. He feared that Voldemort was once again trying to open up the connection so that he could peer into his mind and possibly influence him like he had managed to do during his fifth year.

This worry made him strive harder towards learning Occlumency as step one of things he wanted to learn and train in the next few months, but he could only do the others if he was sure that Voldemort wasn't simply watching him, so to speak, the whole time he became stronger. Of course, like many things, when Harry tried to learn them out of desperation it hindered his progress. While Ron and Hermione were already putting up some very minor mental shields, Harry was still struggling to clear and organize his mind enough to do so.

That's where Harry found himself today. He was, along with Ron, Hermione and for the first time Sarah, sitting cross-legged on a bunch of cushions that Hermione had managed to find somewhere in the house. Their eyes were closed and they had relaxing looks upon their faces. All except for Harry, that is.

Harry was struggling to clear his mind as his scar ached uncomfortably. _This really shouldn't be hard_ he mumbled to himself under his breath. The group had been meditating for a good half an hour when Hermione called them all out of their trances to ask if there was any progress.

Ron yawned lazily and stretched before shrugging. "I think I've got my shields a little stronger, but they're still too weak. I doubt I could even stand up to anyone using Legilimency right now," he said rather unhappily.

"Same here," Hermione said with the nod of her head. She sighed and looked over at Harry futilely. "I guess there's no rushing Occlumency. Why we didn't start long ago I'll never know…"

"Because I didn't think it was worth it, alright," Harry said somewhat bitterly. He had a slight headache from his time during meditation. If anything he actually believed that clearing his mind allowed Voldemort to have easier access to his thoughts.

"But that was Snape's fault, not yours, Harry-"

"It was me," Harry said rubbing his temples as he tried to clear his head. "Just because Voldemort wasn't trying to influence my thoughts or read my mind last year I gave up on it. We should have been learning it in fifth year."

Ron eyed him warily. "What's wrong?" he asked as he furled one of his brows and sized up Harry's temple massaging motion.

"I… nothing," Harry replied a little too quickly as he brought his hands back into his lap.

"Harry, we need to know," Hermione said soothingly and giving him a pleading look.

"Yeah, I thought you trusted us."

Harry sighed. "Alright, alright. You're right. It's my scar… well, by scar I mean Voldemort. Whenever I try to relax my mind I can feel my scar prickling or get a slight headache like I used to get."

Hermione bit her lip for a second, "But do you feel your shields getting and stronger?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. It's just hard for me to _relax_ with all of this going on. I think I'm slowly progressing, but it's just not fast enough," Harry replied thoughtfully. It had taken him considerably longer than Ron, Hermione and even Sarah, who had only started Occlumency training a day ago, with the reason that she wanted to at least do something, to even begin to feel any sort of barrier in his mind that he could use to ward off unwanted thoughts.

Hermione pulled _Oodles of Occlumency_ onto her lap and began sifting through the pages towards the end. She hummed thoughtfully as her eyes darted back and forth across the page. "I think," she began as she closed the book quickly, causing a thud, "that perhaps you're better suited to learning it than the rest of us."

Harry frowned at her.

"Well you see," she began, "since Voldemort is trying to get into your mind you will learn faster than us since you actually have someone continually prodding you. Occlumency just seems to be mainly mind over matter. Since you can throw off the Imperius Curse easily you should be able to get this done too."

Rubbing his temples again, Harry sighed. "If it was just mind over matter I think I'd be a little more successful right now."

"Not necessarily. I know you partially want to know and peer into Voldemort's mind too. Maybe that's just your subconscious. Given a few days of you really working at keeping Voldemort away, you should be quite strong. It may seem like it's hurting you, but in fact it should be helping you reinforce your shields continually."

"Then… then I don't know what's wrong. I don't _feel_ any sort of shield like you and Ron say you have," Harry said, feeling rather annoyed.

"Maybe because it's always up already?" Hermione asked thoughtfully, though didn't wait for an answer. "You said it's only minor irritation from your scar now and that's better than usual, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Harry said as he thought about it. "So you're saying that I think I'm not getting anywhere because I'm already used to having Occlumency shields up?"

"It's probable. After all those attacks and having to live with it on a regular basis you might have been self taught and don't need Occlumency."

The more Harry thought about it the more he figured Hermione was right. After Voldemort tried to possess him in the Ministry of Magic two years ago perhaps he had learned a different form of mental barrier. After all, it was entirely possible as people learn to adapt, but it seemed no one but Harry and possibly Snape needed to have Occlumency shields up around the clock.

The first real test of Harry's will to push away Voldemort came two nights later when he was having a restless sleep. He began to slip into a vision-like trance as he did for many of his other connection visions with Voldemort.

_The room was completely dark, but Harry could hear voices emanating from within._

_"Finish it, then," hissed a voice._

_"As you wish, Milord."_

_Harry tried to move closer to the voices to hear better, but he found he couldn't move. Seemingly paralyzed, he tried with all his might to make out who the second voice was._

_"But-"_

_"Have I not…."_

_The voices grew louder and clearer. Harry was sure that the second voice belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange. He struggled again to move himself closer, but found it once again impossible. _Do I really want to know?

_The problem was that Harry really did want to know, but he knew that he had to close his connection to Voldemort of the sake of his plans and friends._

_"Then…"_

_  
"We- lord…- be- … -"_

_The voices began to fade away as Harry willed walls into place that blocked out the conversation. As the voices grew ever fainter, Harry let out a sigh of relief._

_"Don't you want to listen in, Harry?" Voldemort hissed loudly as if he was talking directly into Harry's ear._

_"No!" he replied instantly, trying to reinforce his shields._

_"Now now, Harry, I am sure you want to know what Bella wants to do…"_

_"So I can fall into another one of your traps, Tom?" Harry replied bitterly._

_Voldemort's voice became more agitated and angry. "Never call me that again, Harry-"_

_"Well then I suggest you stop calling me by my first name, _Tom_," Harry spat back and tried again to close Voldemort out of his mind._

_"Traps? Oh I'm beyond that. There is no need to play all secretive with Dumbledore out of the way. You know this full well. I guarantee you would like this information… all you have to do is give up Occlumency. It would benefit you _and_ your friends…"_

_"I don't think so, _Tom_, I'm not falling for anymore of your tricks," Harry said as he gritted his teeth._

_"A pity, really. Even Dumbledore would have liked to know what is about to happen in this way. It's a shame his pupil wouldn't even use what is available to him-"_

"No!" cried Harry as his eyes opened sharply and he sat up in bed, panting. He was covered in a cold sweat, but he didn't notice as his thoughts raced to his vision and his scar.

There was a loud crash as Ron burst through the doorway, wand in hand, and scanned the room. "What's going on? Are you Ok?" he asked quickly. His face held a concerned look.

"I'm fine, really. Just a little… nightmare," Harry said, knowing Ron would know what he meant.

Ron's face contorted for a second, but took a step back into the hallway. "It's alright, he's fine," he called as Harry heard more footsteps approaching rapidly.

Hermione slid into view wearing a nightdress, but also had her wand in hand. "Was it… Voldemort?" she asked slowly, seeing Harry covered in cold swear.

Nodding in reply, Harry took off his wet t-shirt and tossed it onto the floor. "I think I stopped him with Occlumency, though."

"How do you know?" Hermione asked.

"Because my scar doesn't hurt right now. It always hurts after a vision like that," he explained as he gently touched his hand to his scar, but it still didn't react at all.

Furling her brow and sizing him up, she broke into a smile. "That's great, Harry," she said before succumbing to a yawn.

"Alright, alright. I'm fine, I blocked Voldemort using Occlumency. You can all go back to bed now," Harry mumbled as he grabbed a fresh t-shirt to wear.

The assembled crowd, which now included Sarah as well as Tonks, all said their goodnights once again and headed back down to their respective rooms, leaving Harry in peace.

He sighed as he laid back down to rest his head on his pillow. Voldemort had tried to trap him again, but he had fought him off. He stared at the ceiling wondering of Voldemort really thought he was foolish enough to fall for the same trap twice as he drifted off to sleep.

Harry awoke rather late, though he felt refreshed and determined knowing that he had successfully blocked Voldemort using his Occlumency shields. He knew he still had quite a bit of training and work to do before he would be able to stop Voldemort completely, but he was relieved to know that he could stop him if there was a serious need to do so.

As he went downstairs to the kitchen, he had made up his mind to return to Privet Drive today. Tonks had told him last night that the Dursleys had in fact returned to their house, but there was still no trace of Dudley. She had also told him to leave Dudley's disappearance tracking to the Aurors and the Order, but Harry half hoped he'd be able to find some clues while he was back in the general area.

He sat down at the table across from Sarah after fixing himself a sandwich, since he realized it was nearly time for lunch instead of breakfast like he had thought.

The younger girl looked up at him and then returned to flipping through one of the books that Hermione had purchased a few days earlier. She took a bite of a similar sandwich she had prepared for herself before Harry woke up.

"Where's Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked, feeling slightly sad as Sarah still apparently hadn't forgiven him for their argument a few days ago.

Sarah flipped another page in the book and took another bite of her sandwich, chewed and swallowed before she answered him. "They're in the drawing room practicing dueling," she answered without looking up.

"Erm, I see…" he trailed off thinking how to best phrase what he wanted to say. "I know you're still mad at me, but I'm just trying to keep you safe… you saw how dangerous it was," he said, trying to find a comment that would get her to talk to him. The two had shared very few words during the last few days, and none that weren't strictly professional, or so it seemed.

The girl took another bite of her sandwich and there was a ruffle as she turned another page in the book she was concentrating on.

"So, what are you reading about?" Harry asked in a resigned tone.

"Shield charms," Sarah answered immediately. Her eyes darted back and forth across the pages nearly as quickly as Hermione's usually did.

"You seem to be reading pretty fast-"

"Because I need to learn it. You said it was dangerous, so I'm learning how to protect myself," Sarah answered almost robotically.

"I see," he mumbled back. "You don't really have to learn them though…"

"But I want to learn them," she took another bite of her sandwich as she turned to the next page.

Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Alright, well, if you want to learn them go ahead, but I'm not going to let you get into danger anymore."

"No, you're just going to send me somewhere I don't want to be."

Her cold and yet sad voice cut deeply into Harry, who silently ate for a few moments. "I think we can go back to Privet Drive today. It should be safe now," he managed to say.

"Ok, then I better go pack," she said as she got up from the table, returned her plate to the sink, and closed the book she was reading. With the book under her arm, she headed towards the door where Ron was leaning against the wall with an amused look on his face.

"Don't say. Just don't say it," Harry muttered as he caught sight of Ron.

"Hey," Ron began as he held his hands up in front of himself defensively, "I just call it as I see it."

Harry simply rolled his eyes and headed out of the kitchen to pack up his things.

* * *

Tonks had given the group a Portkey to take them back to Privet Drive once they were all packed, which didn't take long. The books and cloaks they had purchased were once again shrunk to perfection by Hermione and held inside their pockets as they all took hold of the feathery quill.

They landed in a crumpled heap on the grass since Harry had messed up his landing yet again and stumbled into Ron, who this time lost his balance completely and toppled into Hermione, who grabbed on to Sarah for balance. Harry was quite sure that if anyone happened to see their entrance into the Dursley's backyard they'd be laughing and for that reason Harry was thankful of the high privacy fence that surrounded the property.

Brushing themselves off, the group headed through the back door and into the kitchen, only to be cut off by a very fat and irate man.

"Excuse me, Uncle Vernon, you're blocking the door," Harry commented honestly as he tried to maneuver around the man to get to the hallway.

"_Where. Is. He_," Vernon spat out each word with a force that stopped Harry dead in his tracks.

Harry had seen his uncle angry on many occasions, but never like this. His face was drained of all color and his knuckles looked like they were on the very to pop out of his skin because they were clenched so tightly into his massive fists. "Where is who?" Harry asked, taking a slight step back.

"_You freaks have him_!_ I know you do_!" thundered Vernon as he advanced forward menacingly. He stopped only when he saw Ron and Hermione quickly draw their wands from their pockets.

"Have who?" Harry asked, not really thinking clearly.

"My Dudderkins!" wailed Aunt Petunia from Harry's side, which caused the boy to jump and whirl around to face his aunt, who had tears streaking down her face. "He's still gone!"

"I uh… don't know where he is. The Ministry is looking for him-"

"This is your _effing_ fault!" Vernon bellowed, shaking a fist menacingly at Harry. "Leave, _now_!" he bellowed again, his voice nearly loud enough to cause the windows to shatter.

Harry took another step backwards and collided with Sarah, who stumbled backwards as well. "They'll find him!" Harry said back rather loudly, not knowing exactly what to say. After all, it was Harry's fault that Greyback had been around in the first place.

"I have had enough _freaks_ living in my house. Eating my food! Living in my rooms! The neighbors wonder what is going on! I have a bunch of ruddy criminals living my house! _OUT_!"

Despite it going against his own morals, with a quick motion Harry withdrew his Gringotts' money bag and reached inside. To his surprise as well as everyone else's, he withdrew large collection of one hundred pound notes.

"Bribery!" Uncle Vernon roared, though his voice was already losing his edge as his eyes darted between Harry and the money Harry was holding in his hand. It was a classic battle of Vernon's dislike of Harry or anything magical and his enormous greed.

"No, not bribery," Harry said as he moved closer to his uncle and held out the stack of notes. "I realize that with four of us it'll cost a lot."

Uncle Vernon snatched the money out of Harry's hand and examined it closely. When he could find no obvious sign of forgery, he glared at his nephew. "Where did you get this, boy? Did you steal it?"

Harry sighed. "No, it's… uh… it's my friend's money you see. They're quite well off and all…"

"Typical! Needing your friends to bail you out when you're in tricky situations," Vernon sneered, but he pocketed the money anyways and tapped it a few times for good luck. "I suppose you can stay…"

"But what about Dudders?" wailed Aunt Petunia again when she realized that her husband had backed down.

"They'll find them, Aunt Petunia. If not, I'll find him." With that comment, Harry led himself and his three friends past his aunt and down the hallway to the stairs.

When he got to his room, he sighed sadly and sat down on the edge of his bed in thought.

"What's wrong, mate?" Ron asked him as the girls headed down the hallway to the guest room. Since Sarah was able to get a good nights sleep now and was still mad at Harry the sleeping arrangements went back to normal.

"I just bribed my Uncle," Harry said.

Ron shrugged. "You did what you had to do. You didn't want us staying at Grimmauld Place because there's a chance the Ministry will get in there. I may not be Hermione, but even I see the logic in it," he said with a slight grin.

"The thing is, I know he took the bribe to let us stay and all… but it was like I was trying to pay him off for losing Dudley. It's sick," Harry replied as a wave of nausea passed through him.

"Well I would suggest a walk in the park, but who knows what we'll find there this time, eh?" Ron joked as he pulled out some of the shrunken books he was carrying and with a wave of his wand enlarged them back to their normal size. "Erm, where are you going?" he asked, seeing Harry heading towards the doorway.

"You said you wanted to go for a walk. Let's go," Harry said as he entered the hallway and went down the stairs.

Ron quickly followed him after heading down the hall and telling Hermione and Sarah that they'd be out for a bit.

The park wasn't deserted since it was the middle of the day and school was out for the summer. It was hot, though, so Harry and Ron sat down under a rather large tree as far away from the bushes and playground as possible.

After a few moments of silence, Harry finally spoke. "Am I doing the right thing?"

Ron looked at him with a somewhat shocked expression. "What do you mean?"

"You know. Running off on our own to do all of this. And then there's Sarah… I know it's not really a smart thing to let her stay with us, but it's what she wants…"

"If it wasn't the right thing to do, mate, Hermione and I wouldn't have come with you at all. Neville, Luna and Ginny wouldn't either. We follow you because we trust you and know what needs to be done."

"Yeah, but," Harry hesitated before speaking softly, "Are we in over our heads? We nearly got done in by Greyback alone."

"But we're still here, and yes I know it was because he ran into Dudley and his friends…" Ron trailed off slightly. "I think we shouldn't have ran away. Now's not the time for running. It's the time for standing and fighting."

Harry mulled over Ron's words and then nodded with a determination. "You know, Ron, you're right. If we ever want to beat Voldemort and his Death Eaters we're going to have to stand up to them eventually. Running is only going to make us lose at this point," he said, but then slumped back down against the tree he was leaning against. "But still… Sarah's hacked off at me right now, how am I ever supposed to do what I was planning?"

Ron smiled slightly, "Well, girls are like that and all. Remember when I accidentally made that comment about Hermione's hair and she didn't talk to me for a week? Sarah will come around. If you think this is bad you should see what happens when mum makes Ginny mad."

Laughing slightly at the thought of Mrs. Weasley and Ginny arguing with each other brightened his day slightly and he was glad he hadn't witnessed one of those.

"Girls can hold grudges for a long time mate and we've just got to grin and bare it," Ron said sagely. Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"But seriously, do you think I should let the Order know about the Horcruxes? They might be found faster. I'm not even sure how we're going to find them. Dumbledore basically fed me all the information on the first ones."

Ron sighed and stood up, brushing off his back. "Well you did say the Ministry is interfering with them. They Ministry will find out about the Hocruxes fast and then I am sure Voldemort will know soon after. Like I said earlier, if Hermione, myself and all there rest of us didn't think you were doing this the right way we'd tell you."

Harry stood up and the two of them began to slowly walk back towards Privet Drive. "Well then, I guess there's one thing that needs to be done today as well as studying."

"What?"

"We have to head up to a property realtor and get ourselves a Headquarters," Harry smiled with a distinct pride in his voice.

* * *

They had to catch a bus up to Greater Whinging to find what they needed, because after a short discussion with the only realtor around in Little Whinging, they realized that he was only going to sell them houses in his area.

The bus ride was rather calm, Harry thought, especially after all his trips taking the Knight Bus. It took them a good half an hour to reach downtown Greater Whinging, where they quickly found a property realtor.

This brought them a whole new set of decisions, though. They had already decided that they wanted a place out in the country, but they also needed something big enough to accommodate at least seven people if not more. They still weren't sure if anyone else would be joining them.

Another problem was the realtor himself. He seemed quite interested in watching them carefully as they flipped through his portfolio of available farmhouses or older style townhouses that were out of main populated areas. Harry figured that this was just due to the fact that a boy who wasn't even seventeen yet and his friends were looking for a large and expensive place to stay.

Eventually the choice came down to three places that could work. All of them were out in the country and came with a large section of empty land as well. This would guarantee that no one would be around them.

In Harry's mind there was only one choice, however. One of the properties, a nice house with more than enough space, had a small town only a few minutes walk away from it. This was too close for comfort, Harry thought, as there would still be a lot of innocent people around. The second one was a rather large cabin that was built off in the middle of nowhere. While this was practical for Harry's concern of innocent people around him being say, it just wasn't possible. They still needed some access to a nearby town to get food and other daily items.

This is why the third, a rather large townhouse, was better. It was on its own property and quite old, and about a ten minute walk to the nearest town. It had all the room they could need and wasn't close to anything.

"Ah, the old Benson townhouse," commented Mr. Maison, the realtor as he leaned over Sarah's shoulder to get a good look at what the group was talking about.

"What is the price?" Harry asked as he looked up to face the young man.

Mr. Maison looked rather startled that he was actually being asked. "That is worth at least two hundred thousand pounds. It is an old house with a great deal of land surrounding it."

"I see," Harry said nodding as he reached into his pocket and withdrew his money bag. He opened it up and pulled out another large wad of one hundred pound notes.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter," Mr. Maison began, though he looked at the money intently, "But all purchases here require a credit check by a bank…"

Harry withdrew the money and put it back into the bag where it promptly disappeared back to Gringotts. "I see. I'll be a few minutes, I suppose," he said as he led his three companions outside.

"Now what?" Ron asked scratching his head.

"Simple. We get a bank account with the nearest bank. With an initial deposit like this they're sure to give us one," Harry commented as he headed down the street to a bank where his Aunt had taken him once before when she needed to get her errands done.

However it was anything but simple. Harry had overlooked the fact that he didn't have any sort of identification on him. Wizard's never carried any ID, but the muggle world used it for everything.

"I am sorry, sir," the teller was saying, "But I cannot let you open an account regardless of what your initial deposit will be without some proof of identification."

Harry frowned and turned back to the others, but Hermione pushed past him and looked back up at the teller. "I'm sorry, but here," she said pushing forward a piece of paper towards the teller.

The teller read it and nodded. "It appears everything is in order, Miss Granger. What is it you wish to deposit?"

Hermione waved her hand dismissively. "The account can be under my name if you want, but Harry will be making the deposit. He's my adopted brother, you see. All his identification was lost in the house fire where…" she trailed off, but gave the teller a knowing look.

Harry had to step on Ron's foot rather hard to make Ron stop staring in shock at Hermione's actions.

"I see, Miss Granger. That's quite unfortunate. Mr. Potter, how much will you be depositing?" the teller asked as he gave him a look of sympathy.

Reaching into his money bag, Harry withdrew a bunch of notes worth about three hundred thousand pounds. While he wasn't exactly sure how much this was worth in galleons, he figured he'd best deposit more than was needed at the bank to purchase the house as well as whatever else they needed, such as furniture. He handed the money to the teller.

"Err, please hang on a second, Mr. Potter," the teller said while he pressed a button beside his computer. "I'm afraid deposits this large must be overseen by a manager."

The manager wasted no time in promptly appearing since he undoubtedly heard how much was about to be deposited in his bank. He filled out all the forms in a hurry and was overly nice to Harry, but he still checked the money out to the fullest extent to see if it was counterfeit. When he could find no fault in the money, which Harry was thankful that Gringotts actually had sent him actual muggle currency instead of replicating it, he called Hermione's parents to confirm their story.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief that Hermione's parents at once supported Hermione's claim that Harry had been adopted by them and had lost all his identification. When Harry had looked over at Hermione with his mouth hanging open slightly, he caught the slightest of winks from her. He made a mental note to ask her later about it.

"Alright, Mr. Potter. You and Miss Granger now have your account in working order with the sum of three hundred thousand pounds deposited. I must say that is a rather large sum of money for such youngsters," Mr. Bailey, the manager commented as he stood up from behind his desk and began to escort them back to the main room where Ron and Sarah were waiting.

"My parents were… quite well off. I inherited quite a bit," Harry said solemnly. He was quite thankful that he in fact didn't have to lie about this.

Mr. Bailey gave him a sad smile. "I am sorry to hear of your parents," he said as he headed back to his office.

With a flashy new debit card in his pocket Harry and the others returned to the realtor and were quite ready to make the payment for their headquarters.

Once again, there were some problems with Harry and Hermione both being under aged in the muggle world. Still, Harry reminded himself, it was safer going through it this way rather than using the Wizarding World where it was possible he could be tracked easier.

With a rather lengthy call to Hermione's parents once again, they eventually got a lease worked out in the Granger's names. Harry was immensely grateful that Hermione had thought this far ahead and prepared a plan. He hadn't even expected something like this to happen.

When he met up with the realtor again, Harry withdrew the debit card from his back pocket while Hermione took out all her legal documents again. "I believe I can pay for this now, Mr. Maison," he commented as he passed the rather stunned realtor the card.

"Right away, Mr. Potter," the realtor said as he headed around the counter and began filling out all the forms required. After a few calls to the bank, Hermione's parents and many signatures Harry, through the Grangers, owned his first house, or rather the headquarters of the Order of Light.

Mr. Maison had informed him that he couldn't take possession of the house until August 1st due to some things that to be cleared away from it. This suited their purposes fine anyways as they still could stay under the protection offered at Privet Drive until the end of the month as it was.

With the keys firmly in his pocket and a copy of the contract rolled up beside them, Harry and the others headed to their final stop of the day: A Department store. Harry had been informed that the house would have very few pieces of furniture, though it would have all major appliances.

Ron was thoroughly impressed with the many kinds of electronics, TVs and otherwise that muggles had instead of the Wizarding Wireless or magic in general. It shocked Harry that Ron had never even seen a lamp up close, except of course for the time his father had taken a few light bulbs home to show off.

It turned out that no matter how old or what their personalities were like, all girls loved shopping. Hermione and Sarah had immediately taken off to go look at a bunch of color samples and were planning on what colors or patterns would go on what.

Harry and Ron simply let them be and looked around the store for anything amusing. Harry knew that Hermione would make some good choices and, since her parents technically owned the house until Hermione turned eighteen in September, he figured that it was entirely her right to do as she pleased.

"Would you get a load of this thing?" Ron said with excitement as he examined a computer up close with an interest that could only match Mr. Weasley.

"Err, Ron, you might want to be careful with that. It's pretty expensive…" Harry commented as he walked up to see Ron randomly pressing keys on the keyboard and getting no results.

"Blimey, I don't think it works right do you?" the redhead asked as he picked up the mouse and pointed it at the screen like one might do with a TV remote controller.

Harry laughed and spent the next ten minutes showing Ron how to successfully navigate a computer properly. He was amazed himself about how much he remembered from the small amount of time he was able to get on Dudley's computer when the Dursleys were out doing something fun without him.

Ron's fascination with the computer was outdone mere minutes later when he spotted a rather large screened TV playing a football match. He sat down in the reclining chair that the store had on display and watched with rapt attention. "And here I thought muggles had a hard time living without magic, ya know? I guess they really know their stuff…"

"It's not harder for them, Ron, it's just different," Harry explained as he sat on the arm of the chair and watched Arsenal score on the Manchester United keeper.

"Yeah, but the way I was brought up you'd think they all lived in mud houses and had to hunt for their food. I mean did you see that food store back there?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at his best friend. "And just where do you think your mum gets all her food? From Mars?"

Ron blushed slightly. "Yeah I guess I never thought of that…" he said as he turned his attention back to the football game.

Leaving Ron in the hands of the magical world of television sports, Harry headed over to the bedding department and see exactly what Hermione and Sarah were selecting.

He found the two girls talking rapidly with a saleswoman who was holding up a bunch of carpet samples and color templates. Both Hermione and Sarah were examining the carpets and matching them against the colors while the saleswoman explained the pros and cons of each.

"So, what is it and how much will it cost me?" Harry asked as he leaned over Sarah's shoulder to see what they were all crowded around.

"Spoken like a true man," the saleswoman commented as she handed Harry what Hermione and Sarah had selected so far.

There was a lot of red and gold, though there were some combinations of blues and bronze mixed in. Harry rolled his eyes slightly. "Perhaps erm, we could try some different color combinations? I mean we've… uh… _seen_ those quite a bit and-" he stopped as he realized all three of them were glaring at him. _Where's Ron to back me up here?_ He held up his hands defensively. "What I mean is, uh… well… never mind," he stammered.

Hermione and Sarah simply smiled and, if Harry had been paying attention, he might have seen them give each other a slight wink.

Harry spent the next hour leaning against one of the walls while he waited for Hermione and Sarah to finish selecting all the colors they could possibly need and more. Next, of course, was the issue of furniture itself. Couches, beds and other items needed to be purchased. The only things Harry actually picked out himself were, of course, his own bed and a large round table that he planned to use when he held Order meetings. He also picked up some simple bulletin boards that he figured would come in useful for any documents they needed to have out at all times.

"I guess we should go pick up Ron before he turns into a zombie," Harry muttered as the girls finalized their selections.

"You let him watch TV?" Hermione said nervously.

"Yeah, so?" Harry asked, confused.

"You know how fascinated he gets by the smallest thing! He'll never be able to stop watching it!" Hermione shrieked and rushed over to the electronics department.

"They're both nuts," Harry muttered as he and Sarah headed slowly in Hermione's wake.

When they arrived at the electronics department, Ron was where Harry had left him over an hour ago. Only instead of enjoying the football match like he was before, Ron was arguing with Hermione about whether or not they should get a TV for the headquarters. Harry of course wouldn't have minded if they had one, but he wasn't about to argue with Hermione.

"But they're bloody well brilliant!" Ron complained as he pressed a button on the remote and the football game was replaced by a newscaster. "See! It's like a wand, but it's not magic!"

"Shh, Ron! Don't talk like that around here! You should know better! And no, we don't need a TV! We'll have more important things to do… Harry back me up here," Hermione said turning around to face Harry, which made him quite nervous.

"Actually…" Harry began as he watched the newscaster getting handed a sheet of paper from off screen, "I think it might be a good idea to have one to keep up on all the _other_ news as well." Hermione simply glared at him.

"I've just been handed a bit of shocking news," the newscaster began as Ron accidentally hit the volume button so that they could hear. "It appears that small Irish town of Arklow, up in Northern Ireland, has suffered a mass wave of mysterious catatonia."

If it weren't for the now annoying and repetitive mall music one would be able to hear a pin drop as Harry, Ron and Hermione stared intently at the screen. A few other shoppers stopped what they were doing and came over to watch as well.

"A man named Duncan Keegan returned to the small town to visit his brother after a year in London, but found the entire population unresponsive. Emergency medical personnel were dispatched after Keegan called back to a hospital in London, but so far no one has been able to awake from the strange wave of catatonia."

"_Dementors_," Harry whispered to Sarah, who was looking quite confused. She paled at the comment as understanding dawned on her. He nudged Ron who was looking ghostly white as everyone else, but he didn't turn back.

"And now," the newscaster continued, "back to our original story. There seems to be yet another College prank underway now in downtown London. A large skull with a snake coming out of its mouth has appeared in the sky. It is quite an impressive and long lasting fireworks display and we shall be keeping an eye on it for quite a while. No groups as of yet have come forward claiming that they have done it. And now, back to Arnie with Sports…"

"Come on," Harry hissed quietly to his friends. They all followed him through the crowd that had gathered and out to the street. "We've gotta go find out what happened," he said, but he realized that Hermione was already dragging Ron towards the bus stop.

"London, what would Voldemort want in London?" Ron asked aloud as they waited for a bus.

"It could be anything… Grimmauld Place, Diagon Alley… the Ministry…" Harry trailed off as each possibility got worse and worse in his mind.

"What do Dementors do?"

Harry turned and looked down at Sarah, who was still quite pale.

"I've heard they're awful things, but no one really said…"

"Well, they're among the foulest creatures on the planet," Harry began as he quoted Remus, "they feed on happy thoughts and feelings, which means you are left with all your worst memories. It drives people insane just to be near Dementors, but if you're not careful they can suck out your soul. That's what I'm pretty sure happened to all those people in that town."

Sarah shuddered, "But you stopped them a few years ago, didn't you?"

"I only drove them away with a Patronus. No one really knows a way to defeat or kill a Dementor, which is why they make such good allies for Voldemort."

They all digested this information as they waited for the bus to come, which luckily wasn't too long of a wait. While on the bus the driver had a radio on, which was once again talking about the strange cases of mass catatonia to hit the small Irish fishing village of Arklow.

"… never seen anything like it before, John. All medical experts are baffled, but they are quarantining the area and setting up a full investigation of the town and its surrounding area…"

The made it back to the Dursleys' house in record time, running all the way from the bus stop a few blocks away. They slid into the house to find it empty, but there was a note on the table.

_To: Boy and his freaks_

_Your aunt and I have gone away for a vacation. Do not write us. We do not want any ruddy owls. We will be back when we feel like it. Do not destroy the house._

The note was unsigned, but there was only one person in the world who could have written it.

Harry crumpled it in his hand angrily and threw it across the room. "They bloody well don't care!"

Hermione unfolded the note and read it, sighing. "Look, Harry… you can't change the way people are."

"I gave them the money, but instead of doing anything that a caring parent would do, they leave on vacation or whatever they want to call it when Dudley is still missing. Do they not even care?"

"Blimey what little-"

"RON!" Hermione exclaimed as she clamped her hands over Sarah's ears, but the younger girl wiggled out from her hands and glared at her.

Taking a few deep breathes, Harry calmed himself done. "You're right. There's no point in getting angry over this. They're the least of my concerns right now."

"We could go to Mrs. Figg's to see what happened, couldn't we?" Sarah suggested and the trio looked down at her. "What? Wouldn't that be a good idea?" she asked again as she got three blank looks.

"Err, yeah," Harry said. "That's a good idea."

"Better watch out, 'Mione, or Sarah might be our resident smart girl," Ron said, which earned him a swat on the back of the head from his girlfriend.

With that decided, the group headed over a few streets to Mrs. Figg's house, but found that she either wasn't home or wasn't answering the door. After searching around the neighborhood for a bit, they also found no trace of her cats either.

"Do you think something's happened?" Ron asked as they met back up in front of the old lady's house.

"I doubt it. If something happened to her Tonks would come get us, I'm sure," Hermione said as peered into Mrs. Figg's living room via her large front window.

"Unless she couldn't find us because we were in Greater Whinging…" Harry left the thought unfinished.

"It might not have anything to do with us at all," Hermione reasoned. "I mean I want to know what happened, but it doesn't mean we're in direct danger from it."

"Yeah, I suppose," Harry said as he sighed. "I guess we should get back to the Dursleys' in case they try to reach us."

* * *

As it turned one, no one tried to reach them for the entire evening so the four of them instead studied out of their collection of books. Harry in particular decided to read up the Fidelius Charm and other property wards since he knew he'd have to be using them soon when they moved out in around three weeks time.

Hermione and Ron spent the evening practicing their dueling down the hallway which left some scorch marks on the floor and walls that Aunt Petunia would have had a heart attack over.

Sarah on the other hand finished the book she was reading on shield charms and immediately began to read through _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_. There was really no doubt left in Harry's mind as to why Sarah was a Ravenclaw. He fleetingly wondering if Luna was the same way when it came to studying, but somehow he just couldn't picture her flying through a large textbook.

As the evening drew on, Harry began showing Sarah some wand movements to more complex spells, such as the stunning spell and Tarantellgra. He was rather frustrated by the fact that he himself couldn't do magic, let alone actually teach and have Sarah do some herself. If Sarah couldn't defend herself at all, she would be in a lot of danger.

"Why hasn't the Ministry removed the underage magic restriction?" Harry sighed out loud as Sarah mimicked his hand motions for the disarming spell.

"Because they're scared you might lead a rebellion or something," Ron called from down the hallway as he ducked a hex from Hermione. The spell hit Aunt Petunia's precious white wall and left a black scorch mark.

"Actually, Harry, I bet you and Sarah can both do magic without detection," Hermione said as she and Ron entered the living room.

"How do you figure that? When Dobby did a hovering charm way back when I was immediately sent a warning message from the Ministry. Then, of course, there was that whole hearing and trial after the Dementor incident."

"Well, both times there were no adult wizards around you, right? Or anyone that was actually allowed to do magic. I bet when Ron was growing up he and his brothers accidentally did magic during summer and I bet they didn't have trouble with the Ministry," Hermione explained her theory. "Since Ron and I are here and of age, I doubt the Ministry would really give a second thought. Even if they do, we can say it was one of us."

"She's right," Ron added. "Plus they never even said anything about it when you used magic against Greyback."

Harry raised his wand, though he was still hesitant to use it. He decided that Ron and Hermione had to be right, so he quickly cast a shield charm. Cringing in anticipation, he waited for another five long minutes without anything happening.

"See?" Hermione said with a smile. "I guess you and Sarah can actually practice if you want-"

"_Stupefy_!"

There was a thud as Ron fell to the ground rather painfully. Harry and Hermione quickly turned to see Sarah, who was blushing bright red, still pointing her wand at where Ron was standing.

"I… I didn't think I'd actually get it right on the first try," she said, clearly embarrassed. All Harry could do was laugh.

Ron was revived a few seconds later by Hermione. Since Ron decided that he needed some delicate hands to rub his now apparently sore back, he and Hermione had went to sit outside in the backyard.

Harry continued to practice with Sarah, who for her age was actually quite good. He could easily block her spells with his basic shield charm, but the young girl had shown she could learn and correctly cast spells as quick as Hermione was able to. She lacked power, but that would only increase as she grew older.

Since deflecting and blocking Sarah's spells was easy on its own, he decided to try without actually speaking like he had been instructed to do by Snape all last year in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

This was much harder that Harry had expected. His shields were much weaker than they normally were if he even got them up at all. In the end this forced Harry to duck, sidestep or otherwise physically dodge all the spells that Sarah was shooting at him. It turned out to be a good practice session for both of them since while Sarah was learning the spells, Harry was being forced to learn new ways to block them. Once he had even summoned the Dursley's living room coffee table into the path of an oncoming stunning spell after his roll to the side left him completely open. The table had split in two. Harry was actually started to feel grateful that the Dursleys had left. He could easily imagine the fit that Aunt Petunia would be throwing right about now. He figured Uncle Vernon would be having a heart attack if he saw actual magic being used in his house.

When they were finished they took turns using the shower and then went to bed. Harry was quite pleased to see that Sarah was on speaking terms with him again after their training session. It hurt him more than he liked to admit that she was being so cold towards him. It was also annoying to find out that Ron's opinion of girls' actions was dead on.

The morning, however, did nothing to help Harry's mood. When the _Daily Prophet_ was delivered to Hermione, she gasped and dropped the paper on the floor after reading the headline.

Harry had rushed to her side and began reading it with her.

_Incapacitated Aurors Murdered_

_Yesterday afternoon, Ex-Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom were murdered in their ward at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries by Death Eaters of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named._

_It is not currently clear how Death Eaters managed to gain access to the Longbottom's private ward, but investigations are going on to determine how servants of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named managed to bypass the Aurors on guard duty. It is possible that they had inside help, but the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, has made a statement saying that "St. Mungo's is still safe. This action was taken simply because You-Know-Who failed last time in finishing them off"._

_One Death Eater was captured at the scene, however, by the Longbottom's son, Neville Longbottom. Neville Longbottom was visiting his parents with his grandmother, Augusta Longbottom, when the attack was made._

_He stated that he was only able to survive himself because of what he was taught by Harry Potter, better know as the Boy Who Lived._

_Augusta Longbottom was wounded during the attack on her son and daughter-in-law, but is expected to survive._

_The Death Eaters were driven off by Ministry Aurors after they were aware of the presence of Dark Wizard's in the Hospital. The Minister has once again assured the public that there will be strict and harsh penalties on all those who are captured in You-Know-Who's service._

_For a full interview with Neville Longbottom, turn to page 3_.

"Oh Merlin," was all Harry could whisper as he re-read the article. He never would have guessed that the Dark Mark he heard about over London was in fact for St. Mungo's instead of a more 'military' target such as Grimmauld Place or the Ministry itself.

He immediately ran upstairs, barely avoiding a startled Ron who was just coming down for breakfast, and took out his quill and a blank peace of parchment. After composing a quick memo to Neville giving his condolences and asking if he needed to come join them immediately, he headed back downstairs.

Ron was already ranting about how cowardly the Death Eaters were for attacking the Longbottoms in their current condition just because they couldn't beat them in their prime. Hermione was trying to calm him down as she kept shuffling through the pages of the _Prophet_ to see if there was anything else news worthy.

Surprisingly there was no mention at all of the small Irish town that was attacked by Dementors. Harry felt that it was unlikely that the Ministry didn't know about the attack. However, the way the public was right now, they were less afraid of Death Eater attacks than they were of Dementors. Harry had to assume this was because while Death Eaters were human and could be dueled by any witch or wizard, not everyone could produce a Patronus Charm capable of defending themselves and their families from Dementors.

Hermione gasped again which caused Harry to look back up at her. "What's wrong?"

"Erm…" she began as she took the paper and hid it behind your back. "You're best off not knowing, Harry…"

"Let me see it," Harry said, his anger already brewing. "It's about me isn't it."

"Well yes, but it's not important we all know it isn't true…"

"Hermione, give it to me," he demanded, but when she still refused he took out his wand and with a wave silently summoned the paper out of her grasp and into his hand.

Hermione sighed in defeat and slumped down in the chair beside Ron. "Just promise you won't take it out on us?"

Harry nodded as he unfolded the newspaper, which was still on the page that Hermione was trying to hide from him.

_The Boy Who Lived: Hero or Kidnapper? By Rita Skeeter_

_It has come to the attention of this _Daily Prophet_ reporter that Harry Potter, better known as the Boy Who Lived, has taken possession of an eleven year old Hogwarts Student who was orphaned in You-Know-Who's attack on King's Cross station._

_Sources tell us that Potter took the girl in question with him immediately upon learning of her parent's deaths. A senior Auror of the Ministry went to Mr. Potter's house in order to retrieve the girl, but was promptly ejected by wards placed by Mr. Potter to repel all attempts at freeing Miss Williams._

_Dolores Jane Umbridge, a Senior Advisor to the Minister, commented on this event saying that "It is unknown what Potter's purpose for keeping the girl is in fact for. While it is possible he was keeping Miss Williams to gain leverage over the Ministry, we find it more likely that he is using the poor girl for his own sick and twisted enjoyment."_

_While the Ministry is actively trying to retrieve Miss Williams from Mr. Potter's vile clutches, the Boy who Lived once again is acting as if rules do not apply to him. His own statement about this event in particular, which was given prior to his departure, was that he "wasn't going to send her to live where she isn't wanted."_

_Based on Mr. Potter's comment, it is likely that he is holding the girl under the Imperius Curse or using another similar method of mind control. Why Miss Williams would voluntarily stay with a sixteen year old boy is beyond even my insight. Mr. Potter, I believe I speak for the entire Wizarding World when I ask you the following: Won't you please let her go?_

_There will be more on this story as it develops, but I believe I once again I speak for the entire Wizarding World when I wish Miss Williams a safe time until the Aurors manage to retrieve her._

Harry finished reading it and slammed a fist down on the table, surprising everyone. He took the newspaper, set it down on the sink and lit it ablaze with a well placed Incendio. He turned to Ron and Hermione next. "Could you give Sarah and me a moment alone, please?" He was quite livid, but trying as hard as he could to calm himself down.

Ron immediately complied, knowing what Harry was about to talk about, but Hermione resisted so he had to physically drag her out of the room.

Feeling a pang of sadness that perhaps Hermione thought the stories had some truth to them based on her reaction, he turned to Sarah who was looking rather frightened.

He sat down across from her and looked her in the eye. "I need to know you truly want to stay with me. Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna and I will be doing some very dangerous stuff. I can't stress how dangerous it will be, but if you want…"

Sarah's face lit up, "You mean I can stay with you?" she asked happily. "I thought you didn't want me."

"The thing is, that the Ministry is saying a lot of uh… odd things… about the whole situation…" Harry mumbled, having trouble explaining it without getting mad.

"I know," Sarah said as she looked down at the table. "I saw the article before Hermione did."

"Oh," Harry began again, "I'm not really sure what to do about it and all. I mean I've talked to Ron about it, but it depends on what you want to happen. Like I said before on the train platform, I'm not going to send you anywhere you don't want to be."

"I want to stay with you!" she cried, getting quite emotional. "Voldemort killed my parents and you are going to stop him! I want to help all that I can…"

"I… I see," Harry continued, his words catching in his throat. "You know there's only one way that I can get the Ministry to stop trying to track us down, right?"

Sarah nodded, "I know you need to adopt me for that to happen." Tears were streaming down her face. "But you've been so nice to me… probably the nicest anyone has ever been to me in Wizarding World. I want to stay with you." She got up from her seat and headed around the table. She embraced Harry in a warm hug as she cried. Harry himself couldn't help but cry himself.

Later that afternoon, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Sarah all traveled to the Ministry of Magic. Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister of Magic, was quite surprised when Harry burst through the doors to his office with a determined look on his face and his emerald eyes blazing.

To be continued!


	5. Adopting a Fighting Spirit

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 5 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are rapidly becoming bolder and more aggressive. However, those people are foolish if they believe Dumbledore was the final pillar of Light to stand in their way. Harry Potter is still around and more than willing to do what needs to be done.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris you are up at first light and by my side late into night. It's like you have a strange addiction to making me write this piece of fanfiction…

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 5: **

**Adopting a Fighting Spirit**

_"That Harry Potter's got more backbone than the whole Ministry of Magic put together!" - Augusta Longbottom, HBP_

"You can't go in there!" shouted an Auror that jumped in front of Harry.

Harry had managed to storm his way through the Ministry all the way up to the Minister's private offices before someone had the sense to ask him what he was doing or to try and get in his way.

"I need to see the Minister," Harry said in his best authoritative voice.

"The Minister is very busy. He has no time to see anyone who just wants to talk," the Auror said as he drew his wand. He moved closer to Harry as well.

Standing his ground, Harry sighed to himself. "This is quite important."

"The Minister also will not be seeing just anyone off the street unless we can confirm the identity of the person in question and know his or her loyalties," the Auror grabbed Harry's arm, keeping his wand trained on Harry, and tried to pull him off to the side.

_I don't have time for this_, Harry thought futilely. "Voldemort," he said forcefully in the Auror's face.

The reaction was as suspected. The Auror flinched and jumped slightly, allowing Harry to wrench his arm out of the Auror's grasp. Putting his hand to the Auror's chest, Harry physically shoved the man out of his way and headed towards the doors.

With a loud bang the large double doors to the Minister's office collided with the walls behind them as they swung open wildly. The Minister, Percy Weasley and another man that Harry did not know all jumped up in surprised and glared at him.

"Potter, I don't know why you think you can just barge right in here-" Scrimgeour stopped short when he noticed that Sarah was right behind Harry. He let out a satisfied growl. "Dolores was right, it seems. I see you've come to your senses, Potter," Scrimgeour said with a triumphant grin as his eyes darted between Harry and Sarah.

"I'm sorry, Minister, but no. I'm here concerning Sarah, though," Harry said trying to keep his voice even and calm.

"Mr. Bidwell, if you could leave us please?" Scrimgeour said to the man Harry didn't know.

Mr. Bidwell, who looked quite young, simply rolled up the scroll he had been showing Scrimgeour and exited down a slim passageway in the far corner of the Minister's office.

"As much as I'd love to hear this, Potter, I really haven't got-"

"Well, I'm glad, because you really do need to hear it," Harry said. He felt his temper rising already. Above all else he disliked dealing with the Ministry. Sadly, Harry could understand and knew how to deal with Voldemort and his Death Eaters and could predict their reactions most of the time, but there was just no telling with the Ministry. He saw Scrimgeour's grin recede and turn into a glare. "I'm going to adopt Sarah," he stated plainly.

It was Percy who answered first, though. "But you're not even of age yet! Even then the Ministry would never allow such a reckless and rule breaking-"

"Enough, Weasley," Scrimgeour said calmly, retreating behind his political mask again.

"But Minister, surely you aren't even considering letting him adopt-"

"_Enough_, Weasley. I am quite aware of the situation, though since Mr. Potter took the time to barge into my offices I should at least hear him out." Harry thought he could detect a hint of amusement in Scrimgeour's voice.

"Thank you, Minister," Harry said as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "As you and Percy have obviously realized, I am underage and probably would be denied the claim unless you approve it."

Scrimgeour fixed him with a hard glare. "And why exactly would I approve of such a thing when you have thwarted all efforts of the Ministry to return Miss Williams to her rightful guardian?"

"Because for one, she doesn't want to go there," Harry said simply. He placed a reassuring hand on Sarah's shoulder and slightly pushed her forward.

"That's right, I want to stay with Harry instead of going to my uncle's house. He doesn't want to take care of me anyways," she said nervously under Scrimgeour's hard stare.

"Don't tell me he's brainwashed you-" Percy began, but he stopped himself this time as Scrimgeour whipped his head around and fixed him with the glare he had been using on Harry earlier. Glowing red, Percy shuffled his feet slightly. "What I mean to say is that this is exactly what Madam Umbridge was talking about in her article on this matter-"

"That wasn't true at all!" Sarah yelled at him angrily, which shocked Percy slightly and caused the Senior Undersecretary to open and close his mouth a few times.

"You must realize that Mr. Potter is underage, which means he cannot do these even if he meets all other criteria," Scrimgeour said to Sarah, the hint of amusement creeping back into his voice.

Sarah glared directly back, "He won't be underage in two weeks!"

"Then I suppose Mr. Potter can try to do this in two weeks, but by then you'll be safely with your uncle."

Quickly, the same Auror had had pushed away earlier, came up behind Harry with his wand pointed at the back of the Gryffindor's neck. "No quick movements, Mr. Potter."

Harry merely shrugged and mentally counted to five in his head. As soon as he hit five, he heard Ron's voice.

"I don't really think this needs to turn into a fight, do you?"

Slowly turning around, Harry saw both Ron and Hermione pointing their wands at the Auror's back. The Auror himself was already lowering his wand in defeat.

"I think, Minister, it would be wise if we continued talking about this as mature adults," Harry suggested as he finally sat down in one of the two chairs that were facing the Minister's desk. Sarah sat down in the other while the Auror moved off to the side. Ron and Hermione merely stood behind Harry and Sarah, but kept glancing around nervously. Harry had also instructed them to never let their hands leave their wands.

Scrimgeour smiled slightly, "I see your reputation for being rash wasn't exactly an exaggeration. However, you must know that I could easily have all three of you arrested for your display here, and believe me when I say there are enough Aurors present in the Ministry to stop you."

Nodding, Harry spoke again in a courteous tone. "It would be must kind if you didn't, Minister, because I am sure you've realized that we have better things to do than fight each other." He was trying his best to act diplomatic, but his insides wouldn't stop squirming. He silently hoped that this wasn't showing on the outside.

"Right again, Mr. Potter. I must admit, however, that my predecessor and Madam Umbridge both didn't give you enough credit for your ability to handle politics. Surely you must realize that you won't simply be allowed to adopt Miss Williams for nothing?"

Harry sighed in slightly, knowing that he was at least getting to talk about what he needed too. "Of course, Minister," he began in his most diplomatic tone. "I can't guarantee you'll like what I have to say, though."

"Oh?" Scrimgeour asked with slight interest. "And why might that be, Potter?"

"Because you're going to let me adopt Sarah in exchange for me not accidentally letting slip to any major newspaper about Dolores Umbridge's actions at Hogwarts two years ago," Harry said, feeling somewhat satisfied in knowing that this would at least get a good reaction out of the Minister.

As if on queue the large doors into the Minister's office banged open again and Dolores Umbridge strode menacingly into the room. She clearly looked as if she was out of breath. She patted down her brows with a bright pink handkerchief and pocketed it as Harry tried to get that visage out of his head.

"Aha! I knew it!" Umbridge gloated as she assumed her position on the side of the desk beside Scrimgeour. "I told you with the right wording Potter would come to his senses, I told you!" She cracked a huge gaping smile that made her look more and more like a frog. "Harry Potter, coming back to give back Miss Williams on the advice of Dolores Umbridge, Senior Advisor to the Minister-"

"Dolores, you're interrupting Mr. Potter here," Scrimgeour chided her. "I believe your name just came up."

Umbridge looked like she had just been taken down a few notches, but her grin remained as she stared Harry and Sarah down.

"As I was saying, you will let me adopt Sarah right now and I will never utter a word about all the rather… shady things Dolores Umbridge did as a Professor and High Inquisitor at Hogwarts," Harry continued, trying to avoid using the word criminal.

Umbridge's grin faltered as she looked like she just walked face first into a brick wall.

Seeing Umbridge's reaction, Harry continued. "I am not really asking for much on this matter, Minister. You must know by now that I am one of the wealthiest wizards in the country. I'm also turning seventeen in two weeks. Surely you can see reason in this."

Scrimgeour, however, had stopped paying attention to Harry and was looking solely at Umbridge. Harry noticed that Percy was trying to avoid attention altogether.

"Is this true, Dolores? Have you done things that were so bad that Mr. Potter would be able to blackmail me with?" Scrimgeour asked coldly.

"I…" Umbridge began, but it was all she was able to get out as her voice faltered badly.

With a wave of his hand, the Auror who had stepped off to the side advanced, pointing his wand at the Senior Advisor.

"Li, take her down to Auror Headquarters. Don't do anything with her until I have questioned her myself after I have finished dealing with Mr. Potter here," Scrimgeour ordered.

Li the Auror nodded as Umbridge gave Harry a look of pure loathing. She was lead out at wand point by Li. Harry noticed that both Ron and Hermione looked quite pleased.

"So, Mr. Potter, you feel the need to blackmail me?" Scrimgeour asked, back to his amused voice.

"I do not want to, no, but I will do so if it is the only way for me to adopt Sarah prior to my birthday. We both have better things to be doing, Minister."

Scrimgeour sighed and looked at a piece of parchment on his desk. "Well, I am rather pleased to see that you haven't joined your friends in their band of vigilantes."

Harry frowned. "You mean the Order of the Phoenix? Why are you even giving them so much trouble?" He winced when he realized how expertly Scrimgeour had changed the topic. However, this was something that Harry also wanted to know.

Scrimgeour rose from his seat and began slowly pacing behind his desk, ignoring everyone. "Potter, how can I hope to fight Voldemort with everything so out of control?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I can't and neither can this Ministry. You may think that is rather poor, but it is true. The Aurors run well because they are all given orders and follow them correctly. Even your friend Alastor Moody can tell you that. Not following orders and doing what you want causes problems. Alastor's probably told you the story of Auror Bond?"

Merely nodding, Harry watched and listened to the Minister intently. Why the Ministry was interfering with the Order's best interests was something he desperately wanted to know, though he saw Sarah getting slightly put-out because the topic was swiftly gliding away from her adoption.

"Bond didn't follow orders and look what happened. I want to fight Voldemort, Potter, believe me, but I am not going to have a bunch of wild vigilantes running around doing whatever they please. If they work with the Aurors and I, we can accomplish a lot more together," Scrimgeour finished as he stopped pacing and chose to simply stare down Harry.

Try as he might, Harry found it quite hard to disagree with Scrimgeour's words. Still, he reminded himself, this was not the best way to be going about this. The Order knew too many secrets that Scrimgeour didn't know. Letting Voldemort know what the Order knew would just be giving him the advantage. The more people in on information, the harder it is to keep it a secret.

"I see, but what does this have to do with Sarah?" Harry said, trying to force the conversation back on topic. He didn't want Sarah believing that he cared more about whatever delusional views the Minister was suffering from more than her.

Scrimgeour sighed leaned across his desk so that his face was only a foot from Harry's. "Quite a lot, Potter. I know you're wrapped up in this war more than even I know, but yet you've still haven't joined with those vigilantes. I really can't find anyone reason to disallow your request, given that you did come here in a rather mature manner…"

Harry reeled back in his chair. He was completely shocked at Scrimgeour's reaction to this. He had expected a long and drawn out fight, but perhaps he wasn't giving the Minister enough credit. The man had been the head of the Aurors and was quite capable. "I… I'm not sure what to say, other that it's a surprise that you're allowing me to do this."

The Minister eyed him warily. "Keep in mind, Potter, this isn't because of what you said about Umbridge. Whatever I learn by interrogating her is the first I've heard of it. I'm not scared of what I might learn, Potter. I'm doing this because, while you may not like me and I may not like you all that much, I can see why Dumbledore thought highly of you." Before Harry could react at all, Scrimgeour pulled back and leaned back in his chair. "However, this is a favor from me to you. You'll owe one in the future."

Despite knowing that the Minister had played him entirely and gotten him to the point where he was in the Minister's debt, Harry had a weight lifted from his shoulders. He would be allowed to adopt Sarah and thus he was sure that he had, at the very least, changed one life for the better.

"Now, Potter," Scrimgeour began again, distracting Harry from his thoughts. "If you could please get out of my offices, and never barge in like that again, I have some important work to be doing, starting with interrogating Dolores Umbridge. Take Miss Williams now, I'll make sure the paperwork gets done quickly."

Harry nodded, his mouth having gone dry. He stood up, grabbed Sarah by the hand and headed out of the Minister's offices. Ron and Hermione followed, both with grins on their faces.

When the doors banged closed behind them, Sarah nearly tackled Harry by giving him a crushing hug. Her eyes were once again streaming with tears, but of happiness this time instead of the sorrow over the past few weeks.

Harry brushed the long strands of hair out of her watery eyes and gave her a reassuring smile. "Given where I grew up, I'm not really sure how to say 'welcome to the family' or anything and I don't think there are any words for it anyways so…" he left the sentence unfinished as he hugged Sarah warmly back.

"Awww, touching isn't it?" Ron joked with a smirk on his face. It earned him a painful elbow in the ribs from Hermione. "Ow! I wasn't being sarcastic!"

"You may think I'm lying, but you're the first one who's actually cared about me since Professor McGonagall-" she choked on her words, her emotions of happiness and sorrow now fighting each other.

Frowning slightly, Harry smiled slightly. He glanced around and noticed that a bunch of people were slowing down to look at the scene and listen in. "Erm, Sarah, I really want to hear what you want to say and I will once we get home, but there's a lot of people trying to listen in right now."

Sarah nodded and wiped her tears away with her sleeve, which caused Harry to realize that perhaps the fact that he, Sarah, Ron and Hermione were all dressed in muggle clothes rather than robes in the Ministry of Magic was another reason why they were being stared at.

Harry and Sarah walked to the Diagon Alley exit hand in hand, which caused Ron to make a few more comments about how already Harry looked like a father. Hermione was quick to make him stifle his comments with quick jabs to his ribs with her elbows or large sighs.

"You really do have the emotional range of a teaspoon. You know that right?" Hermione commented as they stepped out into Diagon Alley.

"I thought that's what you liked about me?" Ron shot back jokingly.

They continued to bicker while Harry and Sarah talked in hushed tones with each other. All in all, as the sun shined warmly overhead, it had been a good day.

* * *

He knew that this time he would have to carry out what he was being told to do. He didn't actually want to do it, but there was always someone pressuring him into doing similar things. 

He and nine other Death Eater recruits were hiding in a dark alley directly across from their target. The shop in Diagon Alley, it was reported, had helped Harry Potter. He and the other people he was with were dressed in dark black cloaks with white masks over their faces.

This would be the first daylight attack ever since the death of Albus Dumbledore and the only one since the Dark Lord was at the pinnacle of his first reign.

There was a soft pop when another Death Eater Apparated straight into the alley beside the ten already waiting.

His guts tensed as he knew that this Death Eater was a member of the Dark Lord's inner circle and was there to make sure they did what they were supposed to.

"Go do it. Now" the executive Death Eater ordered.

He stumbled forward and drew his wand shakily. Concentrating on the shop across the street, he let loose the spell he had been practicing all week. It was a very devastating and powerful spell that very few people other than the Dark Lord himself knew. Kindly, however, the Dark Lord was teaching it to all his servants so that they could destroy things with ease.

Almost immediately there was a large explosion that seemed to originate from the innards of Flourish and Blotts. The glass shattered outwards just as the wall facing Diagon Alley seemed to explode out onto the street. As debris scattered, the screams began.

"Excellent. The Dark Lord will be pleased," the inner circle Death Eater said with a chuckle while watching the carnage.

One by one the recruits quickly stepped out into the street and began to cast similar destructive spells at the already crumbling building that was once Flourish and Blotts.

"Over there!" one of the recruits shouted and pointed a mere half a block down the road to where Harry Potter and three other people stood, taking in the carnage. He moved forward up beside the original spell caster and raised his wand.

The original spell caster knew that if he didn't do something, Harry Potter possibly wouldn't offer him any safe haven in the future. This was something he was sure he'd need sooner rather than later.

However, the Death Eater beside him slashed his wand downward and shouted "_Avada Kedavra_!"

* * *

As soon as the first explosion had sounded, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Sarah had whirled around on the spot to see Flourish and Blotts exploding outward onto the street. 

The Death Eaters were out in the open now, though on the other side of the debris. One of them quickly moved forward and launched a spell that Harry knew all too well.

With a flash of green light the Killing Curse came out of the caster's wand and headed straight towards Harry and his friends.

"Down!" Harry yelled needlessly as threw himself in front of Sarah and pulled her down to the ground. He looked up, expecting to see the Killing Curse fly closely through the space they had just been, but instead he saw the curse hit the front door of Quality Quidditch Supplies, a few feet to the right of their position. "Quickly! Find cover!" he barked as he pulled Sarah along with him.

As they were diving behind the display of cauldrons that was just a few feet away, Harry looked back towards the Death Eaters. The one who had sent the Killing Curse at him was laying face first on the ground, while the one who, Harry was pretty sure had been the first one to cast the destruction spell at Flourish and Blotts, was lying on top of him. The Death Eater who appeared to be in charge was yelling at them both, and the one was trying to show with angry gestures that he had simply tripped into the second.

The four of them continued to stay squatting behind the tower of cauldrons while they caught their breaths and sized up the situation.

It was Harry who spoke first. "Hermione, I need you to take Sarah back to Privet Drive."

Both Hermione and Sarah opened their mouths to protest, but Harry cut them off with a stern glare.

"Sarah, I know you want to stay, but this isn't your fight, ok?" He smiled and gave her a quick hug when she nodded reluctantly. He turned to the older girl, "Hermione, I know you want to stay here and fight this out with Ron and I, but we'll only be here until the Aurors arrive. I don't trust anyone else here to Apparate away with Sarah."

Just as reluctantly as Sarah, Hermione nodded and grabbed a hold of the younger girl. Three seconds later both vanished in thin air.

Harry turned back to Ron and got a determined look back from the redhead. Drawing his own wand to match Ron, they both slowly looked out past the stack of cauldrons to see what was going on.

"It _is_ Potter!" one of the Death Eaters yelled.

Instantly a barrage of spells was launched from the group of Death Eaters, who had been continuing to destroy Flourish and Blotts. The mix of spells collided with the stack of cauldrons, causing the stack to collapse and the cauldrons to glow odd colors or, in some instances, explode out right.

Standing up swiftly since their cover was blown, Harry and Ron both launched a few stunning spells back towards the group. There was a muffled thud as one of the spells found their mark and a Death Eater collapsed.

Before the Death Eaters had a chance to retaliate, the one in charge shrieked at them to stop firing. There was only one person that the voice could have belonged to and Harry recognized it immediately.

"_Bellatrix_," Harry hissed under his breath and his urge to through all caution to the wind and charging her down.

"Don't even think about it, mate," Ron said flatly before sending off another stunning spell towards the crowd. One of the Death Eaters did a simple shielding spell and deflected it upwards.

One of the Death Eaters that wasn't firing spells quickly revived the one that they had managed to stun as the rest of them began laying down covering fire in the general direction of Harry and Ron.

"They're heading back to the alley," Harry whispered to Ron as they cautiously inched forward, still crouching among the larger cauldrons that were rolling around in the middle of the Alley.

"What for?" Ron asked, his brow furled, but still staring intently with his wand sweeping back and forth.

The answer came as swiftly as the original attack had begun. Only a few stores behind Harry and Ron, there were a second series of large explosions that rocked the entire street. Had the two of them not been crouching, they surely would have lost their footing.

Turning around to look once again, they saw that Madam Malkin's shop had suffered the exact same fate as Flourish and Blotts. As realization dawned on Harry as to why these attacks were taking place, he quickly found that he had no time for feeling guilty.

Waiting expertly out of view until the second wave of explosions had drawn their prey's attentions, the eleven original Death Eaters hurried back into the main street firing curses and hexes rapidly.

Throwing up a shield charm reflexively, he counted three hexes that were deflected by barely scratching his shield. Harry heard Ron do the same shield charm, only a few seconds later. Luckily, many of the spells missed their marks and either hit some of the cauldrons or simply passed to either side of the boys.

"You're finished, Potter!" shrieked Bellatrix from the crowd of Death Eaters.

His blood burning in rage, Harry stood up and took a step forward and immediately through up another shield charm to block the latest incoming salvo. His shield glowed a bunch of different colors as spells bounced off of it, but Harry could tell his shield was weakening. Dropping behind a rather large cauldron, he heard another group of voices from behind him and his heart sank.

There was a second group of Death Eaters, five of them in all, behind him standing beside the rubble of Madam Malkin's shop. They were casting curses and hexes at Ron, who was just as pinned down as he was, but still holding his own with well placed shield charms and dodges.

"Aww, is the wittle baby Potta all twapped and fwightened?" Bellatrix mocked as she and the ten others with her began a slow advance. She took off her mask and hood, letting her long black hair fall down her shoulders and back. Over the last year her face had regained some of its beauty, but it would never truly lose the haunted and hollow fully that she earned from her stay in Azkaban. Her eyes blazed with a maniacal gleam as she pointed her wand at the cauldron Harry was hiding behind. In an instant the cauldron was wrenched to the side as if a large, invisible hand had plucked it from the ground. "_Crucio_!"

Harry rolled to the side like he had been practicing with Sarah to avoid the jet light, which ended up landing just beside him. Before he could even move again, he was hit by a full body-bind hex from Bellatrix, who had tracked his movements smoothly with her wand. He simply collapsed, unable to move, on the ground.

"The Dark Lord will be pleased," Bellatrix said fondly, with an obvious hint of pride in her voice.

Though Harry was stuck looking straight up into the sky from his back, he knew that Bellatrix and the others were advancing on him once more by the sounds of their footsteps. He could also hear that Ron was still fighting back against the other five Death Eaters that had arrived to destroy Madam Malkin's, but he was still badly outmatched. _Why the bloody hell don't we have any emergency transportation?_ He scolded himself mentally while Bellatrix approached.

"Soon you'll join poor Sirius," Bellatrix said with a smirk as she looked down on him with a wicked grin on her face. "And this time Dumbledore isn't around to save you from-" she stopped and turned around wildly, issuing orders to the other Death Eaters.

As another set of voices began to shout spells and curses before the Death Eaters began to return fire.

Instantly Harry realized that the Aurors must have eventually come, but that didn't help him very much.

However, Bellatrix seemed more concerned with the new arrivals rather than Harry as she reached into her robes and withdrew a simple black leather pouch. Emptying the contents into her hand, she threw it up into the air.

The effect was immediate. Everything around them went pitch black as the Peruvian Darkness powder that Draco had used at Hogwarts was once again put to use by the Death Eaters.

"Now Potter, it's time for you to come meet the Dark Lord," Bellatrix hissed in his ear.

There was a shout and Harry felt something rush by his face. It obviously collided with Bellatrix because he heard her shriek and collapse to the ground beside him. Suddenly he was free of the body-bind, but instead of standing up instantly and running, he stayed low to the ground. He could hear spells flying all over the place as the fight between the Death Eaters and Aurors raged on fully, but in pitch blackness.

"Come on!" Ron's voice cut through the darkness at his side. Ron grabbed Harry's arm and began pulling him through blindly through the war zone.

The two made their way through the black field, tripping over debris, cauldrons, and even a body. They weren't sure whether it was an Auror or a Death Eater since there were spells and shouts coming from both groups all around them. Ron continued to Harry until they reached a door.

Entering the shop, they found that it was Quality Quidditch Supplies. The darkness powder hadn't come into effect inside the shop, but looking through the window was useless.

Harry finally was able to get a look at Ron and saw that his best friend was slightly limping, favoring his left leg. "Ron, you're hurt-" he began, but Ron cut him off.

"It's nothing, I just tripped over a ruddy cauldron trying to dodge something…"

"We have to get out of here. The Aurors can take care of this," Harry muttered as he looked for a fireplace within the shop. "I was stupid to think that we could have taken even those new recruits…"

"No, you wanted to delay them until the Aurors came. We did our job, but now we have to get out of here before Scrimgeour comes along and accuses of being vigilantes," Ron spat the last part out bitterly.

There was a crash as the door banged open and in walked Bellatrix Lestrange. She flicked her wand at Ron and sent him flying backwards. He hit a display case of new Nimbus series brooms, which cracked on impact.

The whole display of brooms, which had been positioned perfectly, fell on top of Ron before the case itself, damaged badly bad the collision, collapsed into itself. Harry's heart rate quickened even more as he saw Ron wasn't moving.

"_Diffindo_!" Bellatrix cried, catching Harry looking at Ron for a sign of life.

Harry spun around and brought up his wand uttering a spell. "_Prote_-", he started to say, but it was too late. He barely flinched out of the way, causing the cutting hex to brush by the side of his cheek. Near-instantly he felt the warm trickle of blood trail down from the wound to his chin where it dropped down to the shoulder of his shirt. "_Stupefy_!" he shot back.

Bellatrix deflected the spell with ease and quickly shot a disarming spell back at him.

Dodging the side, Harry came painfully into contact with a display of Snitches barely a half a foot to the side. Bellatrix's disarming spell hit him, shoving him backwards into the Snitch display. The spinning column that displayed the Snitches toppled backwards onto the ground as he hit it. Harry himself ended up lying on top of the downed display.

Harry was quite possibly spared a quick defeat by a large swarm of glittering golden balls with white wings as all the Golden Snitches on the display he had just knocked over took off into the shop, fluttering around wildly.

Obviously not expecting such a thing to happen, Bellatrix shrieked in surprise and swatted at the Snitches futilely, which only caused them to bob and weave all around her arms like they were charmed to do in the first place.

Grateful for the momentary distraction, Harry scrambled to his feet and dived behind the nearest solid shelf, which was full of Quidditch pads.

Not to be outdone by a few Snitches, Bellatrix whipped her wand to her right. As if a large fly swatter had swung across the room, a bunch of the Snitches that were fluttering around her body were pushed forcefully to the side and crushed up against the wall. "It'll take more than that to stop me," Bellatrix said smugly as she pointed her wand at the shelf Harry was hiding behind. "Reducto!"

The spell hit its target dead on, sending Quidditch pads and wooden splinters flying everywhere. Harry was ready, though, and as soon as the shelf broke into pieces under Bellatrix's spell, he banished the pieces of wood and pads directly back at her.

Bellatrix was quick to respond and cast a strong shield charm right away. The pads and splinters hit the shield and dropped harmlessly to the ground. "_Reducto_!" the Death Eater spat again, this time sending the dangerous spell directly at Harry.

Without enough time to dodge, Harry once again cast his shield charm, praying that it would be strong enough to withstand the powerful spell. With his eyes closed, he awaited his fate. Harry opened his eyes and blinked a second later when he realized that nothing had impacted against his shield. Looking up at Bellatrix, he saw that she was wearing a triumphant grin.

"Wittle baby Potta has a lot to wearn," she cackled as she spun her wand in a spiraling motion towards the Gryffindor.

As if a snake was coiling around his shield, Harry saw his shield shimmering as it did normally when it was resisting spells. Without warning Bellatrix jerked her wand backwards.

Harry stumbled forward feeling like he was lassoed by a tight rope. His shield crumbled under the might of Bellatrix's spell. The invisible coils moved down to his wand. With a second tug, he staggered forward yet again as his wand was ripped from his hands. He barely managed to keep his balance as he saw his wand bounce and roll on the ground, stopping just a bit before the Death Eater's feet.

Shrieking in triumph, Bellatrix thrust her wand towards Harry again and banished him hard against a rack of Quidditch robes that were against the back wall of the store.

As he slammed into the wall painfully, Harry grabbed onto the robes that were hanging to keep himself from falling. The horizontal pole that the robes were hanging from gave away under the strain and fell to the ground, bringing down the robes and Harry with it. Trapped under a relatively heavy bar and tangled in Quidditch robes of popular English teams, Harry struggled to move, but was pinned. Before he knew it, Bellatrix was right in front him, her eyes blazing down at him.

She smirked and brushed some of her long hair back over her shoulder. "_Crucio_," she sang passionately.

* * *

Hermione Apparated smoothly into the backyard of Number 4 Privet Drive with both herself and the younger girl holding onto her upper arm perfectly intact. This did little to help her nervous state of mind, however. She desperately wanted to be back in Diagon Alley with Harry and Ron, but she had agreed to take Sarah, Harry's newly adopted daughter, back to Privet Drive for her safety. 

As she headed towards the book door with Sarah in tow, she prayed silently that Harry and Ron would be alright and that the Aurors wouldn't take too long to respond. After all, she reasoned, the attack was right in Diagon Alley and shouldn't take long to notice.

The first thing Hermione herself noticed, however, was that the back door to the house was unlocked. She was absolutely sure that she had locked the door before they had left. "Sarah," she whispered to the girl behind her, "stay here. I think there's someone in there." She was pleased to see that Sarah had already drawn her wand.

Slowly and as quietly as she could, Hermione opened the door and slipped inside. She inched around the kitchen and ducked down behind the counter as she heard some noise coming from the Dursley's living room. She thought it was possible that the Dursleys had returned from their vacation, but the situation just didn't feel right.

"Where are they?" a familiar, but dull voice asked.

"I told ya for the last time I don't know. The Dark Lord said they should be here," a deeper, but similar voice to the first one, answered. The second man was clearly irritated.

"But then won't we get in trouble?" the first voice asked.

"I told you! I don't know that either! We were just supposed to find out what they were doin' and delay 'em! Nothing hard!" the second voice answered yet again, his irritation clearly growing.

Hermione gritted her teeth, wand in hand from behind the kitchen counter. She recognized the first voice as Gregory Goyle. She figured that the second voice belonged to his father or someone else related to him given how similar they sounded. She inched forward into the dining room, which had a large open doorway into the living room.

She spotted two figures dressed in complete Death Eater robes and masks arguing with each other in the middle of the living room when she leaned out around the wall to take a peek. She was secretly thankful that Goyle seemed to have a rather poor relationship with his father. Slipping around the corner stealthily, Hermione pointed her wand at the back of Goyle's father and whispered "_Stupefy_."

Goyle Sr. stumbled forward and collapsed face first through the Dursley's coffee table, which broke in two under the weight. Goyle looked down at his father stupidly before he too took a stunning spell to the chest, causing him to fall slowly over backwards and land in Vernon Dursley's armchair.

Victorious, Hermione stood up fully and headed over into the living room, planning on binding the two men. Pointing her wand at Goyle, she muttered "Incarerous." Ropes flew out of the tip of her wand and wrapped firmly around her classmate's body. She snatched up Goyle's wand and pocketed it. Turning to Goyle Sr., who had blood oozing out from under his mask, she prepared to repeat the binding spell.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a large boulder-like body slammed into Hermione's side, sending her sprawling out on to the floor. Her wand left her grip and rolled away towards the Dursley's sofa.

Feeling like she was spinning, Hermione shook her head as she propped herself up with her arms. She spotted one person she really didn't want to see right now.

Vincent Crabbe, who Hermione hadn't spotted and wasn't wearing his Death Eater mask at the moment, grabbed the girl by the collar of her shirt and hoisted her up to her feet with one hand. He shoved her back painfully into the wall, causing one of the nearby pictures to fall off its nail. Abandoning magic altogether since he had never been that talented, Crabbe placed his other arm across Hermione's throat and pushed inward.

Gasping for breath, Hermione struggled, kicking her legs and flailing her arms helplessly against Crabbe's massive form.

Crabbe responded by pushing up under her chin with the arm he was using to choke her, lifting her up off the ground. "You think you're so smart!" laughed Crabbe with his deep voice. "Look who is smart now?"

Hermione continued to struggle, kicking her legs into Crabbe's knees, but it was ineffective. She began to see stars dancing in front of her eyes as the oxygen deprivation began to take its toll. Her next attempt to break her attacker's hold on her throat was sinking her nails deep into Crabbe's muscular arm. It caused Crabbe to grunt in pain, but otherwise it didn't help the situation any.

Crabbe pushed harder on Hermione's throat, trying to get her to squirm in pain even more. "I think you're the stupid one!" he said before guffawing deeply.

Her vision began to fade as a growing darkness consumed her. _It can't end with me looking at Crabbe's ugly face_, Hermione thought futilely. However, she saw no way out of it. Just as she was about to pass out, she heard a voice from behind Crabbe.

"Let her go!" Sarah yelled, her wand pointing at Crabbe's back.

Shocked that someone else was around, Crabbe released Hermione, letting her fall into a heap on the ground. He turned around and blinked stupidly, much like Goyle had done a few minutes ago.

Gasping for breath, Hermione had a clear view of the scene from the ground. She sputtered and gasped more as she saw Goyle Sr. stirring behind where Sarah was standing. The younger girl hadn't seen the movements however, and was focused entirely on holding Crabbe at wand-point. "Sar… uh.." she coughed weakly. Changing tactics, she pointed frantically at the remains of the coffee table and the now moving Goyle Sr.

Turning her head to the side, Sarah screamed and took a few off-balance steps backwards as Goyle Sr., without a wand, took a few huge steps towards her. His arms were outstretched as he tried to grab a hold of the younger girl.

Firing off the first spell that came to her mind, Sarah continued to back pedal into the living room as Goyle Sr. cried out in pain.

The large Death Eater grabbed at his face with his hands and tore of his mask. There were large, oozing and, by the look of them, very painful boils across his face. In addition to the boils, his encounter with the Dursley's coffee table just a minute earlier had given him a badly broken nose that was drooling blood. The man stopped dead in his tracks to thrash around blindly with one arm as he kept the other on his face, which did nothing but cause the boils to burst into forest green liquid.

The Ravenclaw girl wasn't out of the woods yet, as Crabbe made move towards her. Distracted by Goyle Sr., the girl had no time to react as the boulder of a Slytherin came rumbling towards her.

Hermione reacted instantly. Drawing Goyle's wand from her pocket, she shot off a stunner at Crabbe's back. It hit the large boy squarely between the shoulders.

Still moving forward, Crabbe's body went limp in mid step. He came crashing down to the floor in a heavy sounding thud a mere foot before Sarah, who was still dodging Goyle Sr.'s erratic grabs.

The Gryffindor got to her feet steadily and sized up the scene before her. Sarah was ducking and moving about the room as Goyle Sr. frantically chased, all the while howling in pain as more of the boils began to burst and re-appear. Hermione trained her wand on Goyle Sr.'s body.

Goyle Sr.'s eyes widened in surprise as he was launched from the living room, through the Dursley's large front window and landed in a crumpled heap in a pile of broken glass. The stunning spell, shot through the broken window by Hermione, knocked the Death Eater unconscious before he even noticed that there was a great deal of cuts over his body due to the glass.

"Come on," Hermione said forcefully as she picked her own wand up off the ground. She pocketed all three wands from the stunned Death Eaters and kept them in her pocket. Conjuring ropes to secure them, she and Sarah headed quickly outside and down the street.

Of course, with a disturbance that loud in a residential area, many people were starting to crowd around the Dursley's house and gasping at the sight of a large man, dressed entirely in black robes, lying on the ground. The fact that he was knocked out, no less, bound tightly with ropes and had his face covered in large boils with a broken nose only added to the fright. It didn't help when both Hermione and Sarah came tearing out of the house holding their wands cautiously.

"Keep your wand out. There might be more of them. The Ministry will take care of the muggles later," Hermione mentioned as they strode past the neighborhood residents.

"But… but… what happened?" sputtered Aunt Petunia's best friend, Yvonne, as the two girls headed past her.

"I guess didn't know my own strength," Hermione shot back with a look. Her mind was racing and she didn't have time for stupid questions.

They reached Mrs. Figg's house without further Death Eater incident. Hermione banged loudly on the door, but the old lady never answered. Frustrated and worried, she pointed her wand at the door and said "Alohomora." The door's lock clicked open, so Hermione pushed her way inside and found the house full of meowing cats, but otherwise nothing was around.

"Are you ok?" Hermione asked, turning to Sarah.

The younger girl looked shaken up, but otherwise fine. "I'm ok." Sarah said weakly. "But what about Harry and Ron?"

That was a question that Hermione desperately wanted to know the answer to, but she had some things to take care of first. "They'll be alright. They always are," she replied with an unconvincing tone. Grabbing a handful of Floo powder, Hermione turned to the fireplace. As soon as she was about to throw it in, the fire flared to life and two figures emerged from the fireplace.

Both Hermione and Sarah screamed.

* * *

The tips of Harry's nerves burned like they were on fire as he flinched and withered on the ground. He screamed, but was unable to tell if any sound came out as the pain intensified. 

Bellatrix kept him under the Cruciatus Curse for only thirty seconds, but to Harry it felt like an eternity. "This is how you use an Unforgivable. _Crucio_!" she shrieked the last word as she cast the spell again.

The pain was blinding enough that Harry was slipping in and out of consciousness. The pain and burning nerves was quickly replaced by a painless bliss for a few seconds only to shift back into torture. For some reason, this was worse than the time Voldemort had hit him with the Cruciatus Curse.

The pain subsided a second time and Harry was shaken back to reality as he blinked. His vision was blurry, but he could make out another man dressed in green to the side of Bellatrix, beside the fireplace.

"What's going on here? I leave for five minutes and-" the man said. Harry suspected this was the owner of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

The poor man never had a chance. As soon as he realized the gravity of the situation his hand went for his wand. Bellatrix was faster. With a flash of green light, the blur that was new arrival slumped down against the counter, quite dead.

Harry's vision was coming back steadily, but he still was quite disoriented from Bellatrix's Cruciatus Curse.

"It's sad that I had to finish off what I started over fifteen years ago with the Longbottoms," Bellatrix said with a cruel smile and a demented gleam in her eyes. She leveled her wand back at Harry. "Otherwise," she said with a casual voice, "You could have joined them."

He struggled to get up, pushing the bar forward and off of his legs while Bellatrix merely continued to smile at him. He shoved and ripped at the robes, trying to get free.

"That's it wittle Potta, keep twying."

The door to the shop opened and closed rapidly as two more Death Eaters entered. One was limping and clutching his arm, while the other looked fine.

"Mrs. Lestrange," the one looking fine said. "We're winning, but more and more Aurors keep showing up…" Harry recognized the voice from Hogwarts, but he couldn't place it.

Bellatrix turned around, but Harry could tell that she was slightly irked by from being called 'Mrs. Lestrange'. "Montague, if you ever call me that again you'll find out what it's like to have your brains turned to mush by the Cruciatus Curse. Now tell the others to get out of here."

Montague staggered back slightly at Bellatrix's reply, but the Death Eater to his right quickly headed back out the door to relay the order. The carnage outside was evident now. There were bodies lying on the ground from both sides, though notably most of them were dressed in the red robes of the Aurors.

Turning back to Harry, Bellatrix's grin returned. "I guess I'll need to make this quick, Mr. Potta."

"Or not," Ron said from the other side of the shop. Bellatrix and Montague both turned to the direction of the voice to see Ron standing, though still favoring his injured leg, and holding a beater's bat.

"You're going to do what, beat us with a bat, Weasley?" Montague asked incredulously. He began to laugh, but Bellatrix eyed him warily.

"This," Ron said as he kicked open the chest he has positioned at his feet. Instantly two black Bludgers rocketed out of the chest and smashed up into the ceiling, leaving two large indents.

One of the Bludgers whirled itself around the top of the room before sailing straight at Bellatrix. She shrieked and dived out of the way, allowing the bludger to crash straight into a display cause showing off a brand new Firebolt. The Bludger split the broom in two before whirling around again in search of another target.

The second one came straight down towards Ron, who was ready and swung the beater's bat. He made contact with the Bludger a split second before it would have collided with him and sent it flying back towards Montague.

The Death Eater, who wasn't really expecting something so fast, was caught flat footed. The Bludger caught him squarely in the face, flipping him over backwards and letting him land on his stomach. His face was turned to the side, but even under the mask Harry could see that at the very least his skull was cracked and indented badly. Dribbling down from underneath the mask was a pool of dark blood.

As Bellatrix used a shield charm to deflect away the first Bludger's second pass, Harry scrambled forward and stuck out his arm. "_Accio Wand_!" he called, and instantly his wand flew to his outstretched arm. Sliding to his left just in time to avoid the second Bludger, which smashed into the floor and bounced back upwards where he had just been, he fired off a stunner towards the Death Eater. The spell missed as Bellatrix once again sidestepped out of the way in the nick of time.

There was another loud crack as Ron smacked one of the Bludgers with the bat towards Bellatrix, but once against she threw up a shield charm in time to deflect it.

Scowling, Bellatrix glared at Harry after she ducked to avoid another Bludger. "Consider yourself lucky, Potter!" she shrieked before disappearing with a pop.

"Let's get out of here," Harry yelled as he barely avoided another Bludger attack. He could hear by the Aurors shouting outside that all of the Death Eaters had departed.

He stepped grabbed a handful of Floo Powder from the container beside the fireplace and tossed it in, "Mrs. Figg's house," he called before helping himself and Ron step into the flames. He took one last look at the utterly trashed shop that had once been Quality Quidditch Supplies and spotted the owner, lying dead beside the counter. His stomach gave a lurch, but not from the travel beginning, but from the full feeling of what had just happened.

Harry and Ron stumbled out of the fireplace together and came face to face with Hermione and Sarah, who both screamed instantly. Hermione dropped the Floo powder she was holding onto the ground as she and the younger girl both took a few steps backwards.

"What's wrong with you two?" Harry asked without thinking. He helped Ron over to a sofa and, after shooing away Mr. Tibbles, let his friend sit down to take some of the pressure off his leg.

"Harry, I…" Hermione trailed off, but remembered what she had to do. "Give me one second, a lot has happened here too." She grabbed a second handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fire.

While Hermione contacted the Ministry, Harry listened in shock as she described, in very general terms, what had happened in the Dursleys' house. Shaking his head slightly, he went over to where Sarah was seated, but found the younger girl staring at him, rather pale.

"What's wrong," he asked, his brow furled slightly.

She responded by slowly touching a finger to his cheek, which caused Harry to immediately jerk away in sudden pain. Sarah's finger was covered in blood.

Having forgotten entirely about the cut he had received when dueling Bellatrix Lestrange. He rushed to the nearest mirror and gasped. The entire side of his face was red and some of the blood had run down his face, leaving streaks, until it dripped on to his shoulder. His shirt was caked with his own drying blood. "Oh Merlin," he muttered.

"Let me get some ice," Sarah offered as she got up and headed to the kitchen. Harry merely nodded and sat down beside Ron, who was looking pale himself.

"Is that your leg bothering you?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head slowly. "No, I told you before I just banged it on a cauldron. It'll probably be fine in the morning, but…"

"But what? Talk to me, Ron," Harry demanded, staring his friend down.

"It's just that… it set in… that was my first actual battle, you know?"

Harry frowned again. "What do you mean? You fought in the Department of Mysteries and just a few weeks ago at Hogwarts."

Letting out a hollow laugh, Ron turned in his seat to face Harry. "Did I really?"

"Sure you did-"

Ron shook his head grimly. "No, I didn't. In the Department of Mysteries I got hit with the first spell they sent at me. I was out it for the entire battle. Ginny and I were just extra trouble for Luna." He sighed loudly. "You know, Luna's better than I gave her credit for? She somehow got Ginny and I out of the Department of Mysteries with only a few injuries. She held off Bellatrix Lestrange, Malfoy's dad and some of the others by herself while doing it."

Harry was determined to get back on topic, though he couldn't help but understand what Ron was saying. Still, he didn't like thinking that way. "But at Hogwarts…"

The redhead let out another unnatural laugh. "Felix Felicis, mate. Felix Felicis. It was all Felix Felicis. It told me what spells to use and how to block the incoming ones. It wasn't actually me fighting."

Sighing, Harry shrugged his shoulders. "You did alright today. You saved me twice from Bellatrix."

"Oh yeah, I was loads of help. I got us cornered in Quality Quidditch Supplies. The only reason I was able to save you is because she was spending all her time attacking you."

Sarah returned with an ice pack she found in Mrs. Figg's freezer and pressed it against Harry's cheek, causing him to jump. "Stop squirming and keep that on there. It doesn't look like its bleeding anymore," the young girl told him.

Harry kept the ice pack against his cheek and rolled his eyes. "Thanks dear," he said somewhat sarcastically. Sarah rolled her eyes too and took the spot beside him while Harry turned back to Ron.

"You sell yourself short, Ron. Using those Bludgers was brilliant," Harry reminded his friend.

Ron paled even more at this mention. "But… Montague," he began, shuddering. "I think… I think I killed him."

"Ron, you know I'm probably the last person to say this, but I realized something important from what you told me. After Greyback attacked us, you told me that it was time that we stopped running. It's a war, and they tried to kill us. You did the right thing. Besides, it was Montague's fault that he was too stupid and slow to get out of the way. You don't even know for sure he died," Harry said as he cringed from the feeling of his cheek numbing.

Nodding mutely, Ron let Harry's comment sink in.

Hermione came up to them, looking stressed. "The Aurors want me to go back to Privet Drive to tell them exactly what happened," she explained.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Harry asked her.

She shook her head. "No, I'll be fine. You two were through a lot worse than I was. You guys just relax," she said before bending over and kissing Ron solidly on the lips. Pulling away and leaving a shocked Ron, she glared at her boyfriend. "And that's for making my worry," she said before turning and heading out the front door.

For a few minutes the three of them simply sat there, reflecting on what had just happened in the last half hour.

"Well," Ron began, "I'm going to go lie down upstairs. I think you two have some stuff to talk about anyways." Before either Harry or Sarah could say anything, Ron headed slowly up the stairs.

Harry turned to his adopted daughter. "You can start by telling me exactly what happened at the Dursley's house."

Sarah recounted the story of the Goyles and Crabbe lying in wait in the house, and how she had followed Hermione in after she heard a fight break out. After she finished retelling the part where she had hexed Goyle Sr. with a spell that Harry had shown her only a few hours before, Harry himself couldn't help but smile proudly.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked seeing his reaction. "Is your cut hurting?"

The Boy who Lived shook his head. "No, but I was worried about you. I don't want you to be in danger," he said as he pulled Sarah into a hug. He winced. "Err, ok, maybe I'm a little sorer from being knocked around by Bellatrix Lestrange than I thought."

"You'll get her next time. I'm sure."

Harry smiled, "Oh I'll get her eventually, if not next time. She's done too many horrible things to be free," Harry said as in mind's eye here saw Bellatrix using the Killing Curse on the Quality Quidditch Supplies' owner. "But actually," he said as he leaned back into the cushions of the couch, "I believe you had something you wanted to say before we left the Ministry."

His daughter paled slightly, "I uh…"

"Don't be shy. I'll tell you right now there's nothing you'll be able to say to me that I won't listen to," he gave her a reassuring smile.

"I was just going to say you're one of the only people who have actually liked me after I found out I was witch. Even… even…" she choked on her words after.

"Just say it, Sarah. Holding it inside really won't help, believe me," Harry said thinking back to all the secrets that had eaten him up inside because he was afraid to tell people.

"I don't want to forget mum and dad, but… but then you went and adopted me. Mum… mum and dad didn't want me to be a Witch. They wanted me to be normal."

Harry's stomach turned as Sarah wrapped her arms around his ribs again and hugged him, her tears flowing again. "Oh Sarah…" he said, unsure of what actually to say. "I'm sure they still loved you."

The girl nodded against his chest, "They did, but they never looked at me the same way. It's like they only liked me because they had to."

"I'm sure they loved you more than anything, but you have to remember it's a huge change for them too, finding out their daughter is magical. It's something they can't understand, so it doesn't really surprise me that they treated you differently. That doesn't make it right, though," he added at the end.

"But, but they made me stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. They said they were going to visit family, but we've always spent Christmas together."

Harry sighed. "I suppose I really don't know the situation, but no matter what happens I won't think any differently of you."

Sarah simply wiped her tears with her sleeve.

The emotional moment was cut short when Ron let out a loud scream from upstairs.

To be continued…


	6. The Birth of Something Special

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 6 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Yadda Yadda, regardless of whatever Chris said last B/N, I still wouldn't be able to do this without him. Thanks for the summary, Jane. It's much better than mine.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 6: **

**The Birth of Something special**

_"One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them." - Virginia Woolf_

Both the Potters immediately drew their wands and headed towards the stairs. It was only after a few seconds that Harry realized that Sarah was following him and turned around.

"Stay back. We don't know what's up there," Harry said as he motioned towards Mrs. Figg's living room. Ron gave another slightly higher pitched scream.

Sarah frowned, but said nothing. She didn't move off the stairs either.

"Alright, look. I know you want to help, but can you please just stay here?" Harry said, getting slightly frustrated. He realized how everyone must have felt when he kept demanding to be able to do things.

"Fine, I get the picture," Sarah said rather angrily and stormed back down the stairs.

Sighing and learning yet another parenting lesson, Harry pressed onwards, keeping a tight grip on his wand. "Ron?" he called as loud as he dared, but only received another half scream from his best friend.

Mrs. Figg's house had exactly the same layout as the Dursley's house. In fact, all the houses in Little Whinging were nearly identical. This meant that there was a short hallway up the stairs.

From the top of the stairs, Ron was staring into one of the bedrooms. Harry moved up beside him and after determining that there was in fact nothing physically wrong with Ron, he flipped on the light switch to the darkened room.

Immediately Harry noticed what was causing Ron to scream. Mrs. Figg was lying in bed. The only problem was that she was clearly dead. The covers were pulled up to her chin, making it look like she had just passed away during the middle of the night.

Hesitantly, Harry crept closer into the room. He couldn't spot anything wrong with the scene. Mrs. Figg's eyes were closed which made him suspect that she had merely passed away in her sleep. He turned back to Ron.

"Did… did some Death Eaters get her?" Ron asked, still pretty shocked.

Harry shook his head. "Doesn't look like it. Why were you screaming? You've seen a lot worse stuff than this and you nearly made Sarah and I jump out of our skin."

Ron flushed slightly. "Well I went to the loo first and then just headed into the bedroom. The main one is down the hall like in your Uncle's house so I figured that's where Mrs. Figg's room was."

"So?" Harry asked, not really understanding. It wasn't that much of a shock based on what he had seen before and what he knew Ron had witnessed.

"I didn't turn on the light, mate. I just made my way over to the bed to lie down. I bumped into her and wondered what it was. I cast Lumos to see and saw her lying there, dead. It wasn't what I was expecting," Ron said sheepishly. "You don't just crawl into bed everyday and see a dead old lady there."

"I suppose you're right," Harry said with a slight smirk. His mood immediately became more somber when he remembered that he had just found Mrs. Figg's body. At least this explained her disappearance. He was pretty surprised that, despite losing contact with her, the Order hadn't come over to check. "Let's get over to the Dursley's house. We can report this to the Aurors."

Sarah was waiting anxiously at the bottom of the stairs for Harry. She still clutched her wand in hand, but looked noticeably relieved when both Harry and Ron descend the stairs.

"Mrs. Figg looks like she passed away in her sleep," Harry said as Sarah opened her mouth to ask. "We need to go back to the Dursley's house and tell the Aurors."

The trip to the Dursleys took considerably longer than normal due to Ron's leg. Harry began to wonder whether it was worse than his friend had told him it was, but he decided to take Ron's word for it. While it hampered his movement, it didn't seem to be causing him anything more than minor discomfort. Harry suspected this was also from being thrown around in Quality Quidditch Supplies like he himself was.

The three of them were surprised to see very few people left at all around the scene. Judging by what Sarah had described, Harry expected that a great deal of people would need to be around.

Instead it appeared that everything had been cleaned up in a matter of minutes. The Dursleys' front window had been repaired and there was no sign of the Goyles or Crabbe. There also wasn't anyone around, which Harry could see, so he assumed that the Obliviators were off doing what they needed.

They found Hermione inside just finishing up giving her account to a single Auror, who unfortunately was Bond. When the Auror saw Harry and Ron enter, he sized them up by glaring at them.

"Got a little hurt in Diagon Alley, did we?" Bond asked with a slight smirk.

"And if we did?" Ron asked, his temper rising noticeably.

Bond shrugged extravagantly. "Well you know the Minister's views on being vigilantes."

"We were only buying time until the Aurors arrived," Ron replied. His face was flushed red and he was glaring angrily at the Auror. "It's kinda hard to stay out of it when you're being attacked." Before Bond could reply, Ron decided to add one more comment. "If you ever caught Bellatrix Lestrange I'm sure she could tell you that she wanted to kill us, though there's not much chance of that happening now is there?"

Stalking forward aggressively, Bond stopped inches away from Ron's face. Ron held his ground though. It was a classic stand off. Bond, however, looked a lot more distressed than Ron.

The situation was spared from escalating anymore by a soft pop, which signaled the arrival of Dawlish into the Dursleys' living room. Immediately Dawlish separated the two men.

"Richard, the Minister wants to speak with you," Dawlish said forcefully as he tried to keep Bond and Ron apart with his arms.

"He dared, Dawlish, he dared mock it," Bond said, slightly hysterical.

"I am sure he didn't know, Richard. Now the Minister is waiting."

Bond gave Ron another look of pure loathing and disapparated with a rather loud cracking sound.

"What was all that about?" Ron asked, still quite upset.

Dawlish sighed and shrugged slightly. "It's not my place to tell you, really, but please know that he really isn't a bad guy."

Ron continued to fume as Dawlish explained that the Obvliviators were currently working their way around Privet Drive and the surrounding areas to make sure that the event stayed in as few people's minds as possible. It was only natural that someone had phoned another friend or family member to report it quickly, but with the original sources all of a sudden forgetting that they witnessed the event, it died quickly.

When the Auror was about to leave, Harry quickly remembered why he had rushed back to the Dursleys' house in the first place. "Uh, sir? We were just at Mrs. Figg's house and we found her… well we found her dead," Harry blurted out.

"Dead? As in, killed by Dark Wizards?" Dawlish asked seriously.

"No. At least I don't think so. There wasn't a Dark Mark or anything. She might have just died in her sleep."

"That's likely, she was coming down with numerous health problems," Dawlish replied thoughtfully. When he noticed Harry and Ron exchange glances warily, he continued. "You see, we've been keeping tabs on Mrs. Figg and this area a lot more since the Dementor attack on you and your cousin. It's just another safety precaution."

Harry didn't like the idea of more Ministry eyes on his neighborhood, but then he realized that they obviously weren't that good if Mrs. Figg had actually died and no one had noticed for days, he was attacked by a werewolf and three Death Eaters were able to get inside his house and wait without anyone knowing. He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or not that the Ministry was doing a poor job watching over him.

Dawlish drew his wand and got ready to Apparate. "I'll head over to her house and alert the muggle authorities from there. There shouldn't be any problems for you regarding this." He waited until he got acknowledgements from everyone in the room before leaving with a pop.

It had only taken a few minutes to explain Mrs. Figg's condition to Hermione. Ron had excused himself to go take a relaxing bath to help his leg, or so he said. Harry was sure that he caught a hint of embarrassment in his voice. Of course big, strong and manly Ronald Weasley couldn't go around admitting he liked baths.

Hermione was also tired as the exhaustion from the afternoon's events sank in. She excused herself to go have a nap. This left Harry and Sarah alone again, but neither of them wanted to unwind rather than continue the emotional conversation that they had begun in Mrs. Figg's house.

Sarah quickly began reading, curled up on the Dursley's couch, _Hogwarts: A History_ that she had borrowed from Hermione. Harry was wondering if he would ever get a chance to read it, seeing as there was probably some really interesting information in it. He would never voice this opinion to Ron, however.

Harry himself was reading up on the Fidelius Charm and other wards once again. He knew that he had only two short weeks before he'd be forced to perform them on their headquarters otherwise he wouldn't trust it to be safe even if Voldemort didn't know where it was located. On his fifth re-read of the Fidelius Charm, Harry sighed and realized that he'd most likely gotten all he would out of the book. It would be useless to studying if he couldn't actually try the charm, so he headed over the Dursleys' kitchen for his first test.

He took out his wand and concentrated on the room itself. He then concentrated on himself, the Secret Keeper for the location of the Dursley's kitchen. He had learned that the spell took an immense amount of concentration.

With a wave of his wand, he firmly called out "_Fidelius_!" There was a slight wave of warmth that washed through his body, but otherwise nothing seemed to happen. He frowned, wondering if he had cast the spell correctly. He figured he must have, since he felt a heavy exhaustion creeping up on him. Returning to the living room, he collapsed down in Vernon's arm chair and picked up sheet of parchment. He began writing.

It wasn't until several hours later, and nearing dinner time, that Harry whispered the location of the kitchen into Sarah's ear. She gave him a bewildered look as he headed upstairs to take a shower. It didn't take long for both Ron and Hermione to begin pounding on the door and demanding that he tell them where the kitchen was located, since only Sarah seemed to be able to see it. He smiled to himself and had an extra long shower, confident that the Marauders would have been proud.

Harry had a fairly restless sleep that night as his mind continually forced him to relive his duel against Bellatrix Lestrange. It was rather sickening to him that he was so outmatched. Montague had only gone down because, quite frankly, he was acting like an idiot. _Some Leader of the Light_, he thought to himself bitterly as he slid out of bed and put on some pants.

Before heading out of his room, he noticed that someone had left today's copy of _The Daily Prophet_ by the door for him to read. After picking it up, he noticed a quick note scribbled on a piece of parchment in Hermione's writing slide out as he unfolded the paper.

_Harry_

_Ron's taken me out to breakfast!_

Harry could see her gleeful face in mind's eye. Ron was hardly the most romantic person around and even if this was the most casual meal of his life, it was a great step for him. He slightly worried that they had gone off alone considering that there were Death Eaters in Little Whinging just yesterday.

but

it shows

_Sarah's already eaten and is just watching some TV and reading. The _Prophet_ here has some interesting articles on yesterday's events. Just please don't take the first one too personally…_

He grimaced and suddenly had a great sense of foreboding.

_Mate, why are you always the last one up now?_

The last line was in Ron's scribbling and Harry rolled his eyes. It was only seven-thirty in the morning. That was hardly sleeping late, in Harry's opinion. He sighed anyways glanced at the _Prophet_. He may as well get it over with. The front page ran a story that he'd rather have never been printed.

_THE BOY WHO ADOPTED_

_By Tulip Parkinson_

Harry resisted the urge to laugh at the name. He knew many people with floral first names, but all of them except this one had managed to seem natural. He wasn't slightly surprised at name 'Pansy' anymore, though.

_Just yesterday at around midday, the Boy who Lived, Harry Potter, was said to have burst into Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour's offices. After the meeting concluded, Harry Potter walked away with some extra baggage._

_It is with mixed reactions that I bring you the news that Harry Potter has adopted a daughter. Sarah Williams, now Sarah Williams-Potter, who was suspected of being abducted at King's Cross station many weeks, is now under the control of a sixteen year old boy._

_While what exactly our Minister was thinking when he allowed Mr. Potter to adopt before even becoming of age, we will perhaps never know. This is clearly not to say that Mr. Potter is totally unqualified to be an adoptive father._

_With the death of Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, Mr. Potter inherited the Black Family's fortune. In addition to his own substantial wealth inherited from his parents, James and Lily Potter, Mr. Potter is one of the richest wizards in all of Britain._

_Unfortunately this clearly means that Mr. Potter, one of the previously most eligible bachelors, is carrying far too much excess responsibility. Yours truly will of course be updating her lists once she returns to writing for _Witch Weekly_ at the end of this week._

_Naturally, the entire Wizarding World would like to issue congratulations to both Harry Potter and Sarah Williams-Potter._

_T. Parkinson_

He fumed on the spot for a minute before calming down. While Pansy's mother had clearly stated that he was only allowed to adopt Sarah because of his money, it was rather neutral after that. _It could have been a lot worse_, he told himself in defeat. There was a moving photograph of him in Flourish and Blotts with a smiling Gilderoy Lockhart and beside it, a regular, non-moving, picture of Sarah that appeared to be a school photo from prior to her attending Hogwarts.

The worst part of the article was that if Voldemort didn't already know about Sarah being close to Harry, he would surely target her now and have a picture to go by for reference. Naturally, the _Prophet_ and its great reporters hadn't thought of that. _Or perhaps they did_, he mused as his eyes glanced back up at the author's name. Usually articles on Harry were solely Rita Skeeter's territory.

He flipped to page two and saw that Rita Skeeter had also been busy, but he suspected that she wouldn't be happy about being bumped off the first page. Harry gripped the paper firmalsoly in clenched fists and he realized what her story was about, and was quite mad that Tulip Parkinson's article had warranted the first page.

_BATTLE RAGES IN DIAGON ALLEY_

_By Rita Skeeter_

_Yesterday, shortly after Harry Potter concluded his meeting at the Ministry of Magic, Death Eaters attacked Diagon Alley._

_It is apparent that they had two main targets: Flourish and Blotts and Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. Tragically, both Madam Malkin and the entire staff working Flourish and Blotts lost their lives in the attacks._

_While it is unclear why the Death Eaters remained in Diagon Alley until the Ministry's Aurors could arrive on the scene, it is suspected that something in the vicinity of Quality Quidditch Supplies interested them. The owner of Quality Quidditch Supplies, Zach Quidum, was killed during the raid. However, unlike both Flourish and Blotts and Madam Malkin's, Quality Quidditch Supplies appeared to be a war zone on the inside instead of merely destroyed._

_Along with the wreckage of prized Quidditch equipment, the severely damaged body of one Robert Montague, son of the Ministry's own William Montague, was found. It was clear by his attire that the young man was in the service of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. While the entire Montague family is denying these claims, the evidence is clear. Robert Montague died in St. Mungo's later that same evening due to Minister Scrimgeour's adamant refusal to let the Healers treat a Death Eater. (For more about the Minister's new treatment limitations, turn to Page 6)_

_A fully fledged battle erupted on the main street of Diagon Alley as Aurors engaged nearly sixteen of You-Know-Who's Death Eaters. While the Aurors apprehended two of the dark wizards, the others fled the scene using Apparation or Portkeys. This, however, cannot be called a victory as four promising Aurors lost their lives defending the valued lives in Diagon Alley. This reporter prays that future encounters will turn out better._

_R. Skeeter_

Harry's first reaction was that of surprise. The article, written by Rita Skeeter no less, was reported entirely in actual facts and didn't even mention him. He wondered fleetingly if Scrimgeour was leaning on the _Prophet_ in the exact opposite way that Fudge was before.

With this in mind, Harry's opinion of Scrimgeour was changing. At first he had thought that Scrimgeour was no better than Fudge, except of course more decisive. Now he actually realized that the new Minister knew exactly what he was doing. He was, after all, the former head of the Aurors.

* * *

The next two weeks went by rather quickly. Harry and his friends trained in dueling mainly due to their performances in the battles they had fought. While Harry knew that Bellatrix was still way out of their league, they were showing improvement.

Since the day of the battles very little had happened in relation to Voldemort. Two small muggle towns up north had been attacked. However, unlike the Dementor attack, the entire populations of these two towns had vanished entirely. The muggle government was sending military teams up north to investigate what was going on, but after watching the muggle news a few times he realized that the government was down playing the seriousness of the situation.

Harry had also begun brainstorming with Hermione and looked for ways to have emergency transportation. He knew that there were many spells and wards that blocked Apparation, so even when they could all do it correctly there was still a danger of them not being able to. There was also the fact that one had to be entirely concentrating to successfully Apparate. In an emergency, one may be too injured or in too much pain to concentrate enough. Hermione had eventually mentioned that she had an idea about it, but wouldn't tell him what it was until she found out if it was possible or not.

There was also something else going on that Harry couldn't put his finger on. Hermione and Sarah seemed to be sending and receiving a lot of owls lately, but wouldn't tell Harry what was going on. The two girls merely smiled innocently at him and conspired together in hushed whispers.

Harry had asked Ron what was going on, but Ron had flat out told him that Hermione wouldn't let him know. "You aren't good enough at keeping secrets," Ron had told him was Hermione's reason for not letting him in on it. With Ron out of the loop, Harry would also have to wait patiently, well, perhaps impatiently, to find out what was going on.

Neville's birthday had snuck up on Harry quickly, and he had almost forgotten to send off a present in time. He had sent his dorm mate a rare book on Herbology that Tonks had managed to find in Grimmauld Place's library when Harry had asked her to look. The book was quite old and, according to Tonks, who had done some checking up on it to make sure it wasn't a book on Dark Magical Plants, one of only a few that were still around.

One time while Ron and Hermione were practicing their dueling downstairs, Harry was in his room replying to a piece of mail Mr. Maison had sent him. The realtor had sent him the keys to his house and everything else he needed. Harry was merely thanking him for being early.

As soon as he had finished the letter, he heard some slow sounding footsteps out in the hall and went to check from the doorway. He saw Sarah slightly limping as if she had some form of cramps in her stomach.

"Sarah?" he asked with a concerned look. "Is there anything wrong?"

Her face flushed at the comment. "Well… uh… no not really…" she trailed off, clearly embarrassed.

Harry frowned. "Sarah I didn't adopt you just to get you away from the Ministry. I adopted you because I care. If you're going to hide things from me, it'll just end up hurting you later. I'm trying to help, here." He paused for a moment before continuing. "If you don't want to think of me as your father, that's fine. Frankly I don't feel too much like a father anyways, but at least think of me as an older brother who cares. Now then, what's the matter?"

The younger girl flushed even more, if that was possible. "I'm not sure you'd understand…"

"Please, Sarah? I'm trying to help as best I can here."

"It's kind of a girl thing…"

Harry frowned again, his face blank, uncomprehending.

"You know… _that_ kind of girl thing." Sarah's face was completely red.

As realization dawned on Harry the color drained from his face only to reappear in a deep shade of crimson. "I… I… just a minute," he quickly said and sprinted the remaining few feet to the stairs. "_HERMIONE_!" he shouted down the stairs with desperation.

* * *

Harry awoke rather early on the thirty-first, but still was the last one up. He found his trunk packed and down by the hall with everyone else's. He frowned and wondered what was going on. He specifically remembered telling them that he planned on heading out to the HQ on August the 1st instead.

Sighing, he headed into the kitchen where he found Sarah, Ron and Hermione all enjoying a typical breakfast of bacon and eggs. He flushed slightly when he saw that there was already a place set out for him.

"Hey- ow," Ron began before Hermione elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a warning glare.

Harry sighed and decided not to bother asking. He helped himself to his breakfast, but still couldn't help but notice that Ron was looking rather impatient.

After breakfast was over, the weird behavior of Harry's companions continued. They seemed to be avoiding him, but that didn't stop them all from rushing around Privet Drive for an hour. Finally, they called him into the living room.

"Harry," Hermione began, "Are you ready for your present?"

"Present?" Harry replied blankly. The three people in the room stared at him. "What?" he asked. "I- oh…" he said as his face flushed.

"You forgot?" Sarah asked. Her eyes wide open in surprise. "How do you forget your birthday?"

Feeling quite uncomfortable, Harry simply sat down in Vernon's arm chair again. "The Dursleys didn't celebrate my birthdays," he told her. "It was just like any other day to them so eventually I forgot…" he trailed off before looking up at Ron and Hermione. "Since you guys were never with me on my birthday, I always expected to hear from you. With you staying with me I guess I never really noticed and forgot." He finished his story as Sarah came up to give him a hug. She had tears in her eyes.

"That's awful."

Harry shrugged slightly. "It was just the way things were. I don't even need a present this year. I've already gotten more than I deserve," he said as he ran a hand through Sarah's hair. "This time I've barely noticed. The entire summer I'll be staying with people who I care about and they care about me. I didn't even notice," he said as he gave Sarah a squeeze. "Plus, I've also got my own family now." He used his thumb to gently wipe away the tears from Sarah's cheeks.

Hermione looked to be biting back tears of her own and Ron was shuffling uncomfortably while looking at his feet. Harry winced realizing that he had just destroyed a moment where his friends were happy to be around him.

"But, like I said," Harry said quickly in a positive tone. "This year is different. I believe you had something to tell me?"

"Well we figured that before we head to the Burrow to pick up Ginny, Luna and Neville we'd give you our presents," Hermione said as she enlarged two packages that were hidden in her pocket. One was rather large and seeing as how Ron quickly moved to grab it, quite heavy. The other was small enough to fit into the palm of a person's hand.

Sarah headed over to Hermione and took the small package from her. She headed back to where Harry was seated and handed him the small, wrapped package.

Harry noticed that the wrapping paper had moving Quidditch players flying around on brooms. He smiled and tore off the wrapping paper from the small gift. It was a small jewelry box, which he opened carefully. Inside was a small golden chain with a charm on the end of it in the shape of equilateral cross. When he touched it he found that the charm had a faint warmth to it.

"It's a healing charm," Sarah said proudly. "If you get some cuts it should heal them quickly. It won't help against anything serious, but after I saw the cut on your face after your fight with Bellatrix-" Harry enveloped the girl into a crushing hug.

"I'll be sure to wear it all the time. I could use some more protection against scars," he said as he touched his hand to his cheek. The spot where Bellatrix had him with her cutting hex had left a faint scar. "I seem to get a lot of them."

"That was what made me think of getting it," Sarah said sheepishly, her face flushing with emotion.

"Thanks," he said, giving her a warm smile. "Now then, perhaps I should save Ron by opening that one over there," he said as he watch struggle to hold the second package.

Ron frowned and gently set the package down on the floor in front of Harry. "That thing is bloody well heavy, I'll have you know," Ron said as he glared at the Gryffindor. "You try carrying that thing-" Hermione smacked him in the back of the head to cut him off.

"This is from both of us. Ron and I thought you had a lot on your mind and all…" Hermione trailed off as Harry began to open up the package.

Inside was a pensieve much like Dumbledore's, only a lot larger and with a grander bowl. It was an elegantly carved white stone basin with swords carved around the entire outside. As of right now there was nothing moving in the liquid. "This must have cost a fortune," he murmured as he gazed at the carvings.

"Well, yes," Hermione said hesitantly. "But, well, there was this letter we got from Dumbledore a few weeks before the end of last term instructing us to give you this. He gave us the money and told us where to order it from. He forced us to say that it was from us as well…" she winced, expecting Harry to be mad.

Harry said nothing, but simply stared down into the liquid. "He was a great man," he said simply. "Thank you, Hermione. You too Ron. You may have been told to get me this, but it's still absolutely amazing."

"And," Hermione spoke up again, "Any information you wish to keep hidden from Voldemort you can store in here. We figured that Dumbledore's pensieve can stay solely with his thoughts."

Flushing with color, Harry nodded. "Thank you. I truly mean it. Dumbledore's memories will be honored the way they are without mine intruding."

The rest of the morning went well, though everyone refused to tell Harry why they were going to the Burrow to pick up Ginny, Neville and Luna a day earlier than planned. It was after lunch at around one in the afternoon that Hermione once again called them into the living room.

She was holding what appeared to be an old shoe. "From Tonks," she explained as she stuck her arm out for the rest of them to get hand on the Portkey.

"But Hermione, you still haven't told me why we're going early…" Harry began.

"Oh honestly, Harry, you can't think of _any_ reason why we might be going early. On this specific day?" Hermione replied as she kept an eye on her watch. "One more minute," she informed them.

With a tug at his navel, Harry was pulled into the shoe and vanished. He stumbled to regain his footing, but failed and collapsed into Sarah, knocking her over.

As Harry groggily sat up and helped Sarah up, who was shaken but otherwise ok, he heard the sound of laughter. It wasn't just from Ron and Hermione, however. There were far too many voices for that.

Looking around, he noticed that he was in the Weasley's backyard at the Burrow. There were lots of tables and chairs set up around the yard and combined with today's cheerfully sunny, warm weather it looked rather perfect.

"I see you still haven't learned to land on your feet," Tonks said with a cheerful smile. "I suppose it's good that you've made it."

"You're one to talk," Harry shot back before laughing as looked around at the assembled crowd.

In addition to Tonks, there was also Remus Lupin, Fred and George and many more. Bill Weasley, with some nasty looking scars still on his face, was holding hands with Fleur Delacour. Beside Fleur was someone Harry hadn't seen in a few years. Gabrielle Delacour, now nearly old enough for Hogwarts, or Beauxbatons rather, gave him a bright smile and wave as Harry looked towards her.

Charlie Weasley was there as well, though, wearing a dragonhide vest and other cool looking clothes. Arthur and Molly Weasley were in the center of the group. Arthur looked genuinely happy, but Molly's smile barely hid her concern.

Farther on in the back Harry spotted Mad-Eye Moody and Professor McGonagall. Talking to Moody, however, was someone that Harry didn't expect to see. Aberforth Dumbledore stood there, dressed in silver robes similar to the kind that Albus Dumbledore would have worn.

Off to the side Harry spotted Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. Neville gave him a slightly shy wave when Harry looked his way. Standing beside Neville was none other than Luna Lovegood, who looked at his way and gave him a dreamy smile and wave. Beside Luna was a man who could only be her father. He was rather tall and lean with hair of identical color to his daughter's. Barring that, he seemed a lot more normal. He didn't share Luna's dreamy look and if looks were to be believed, nor her personality.

Suddenly, Ginny broke through the assembled crowd, who had begun to sing him a very loud and off key version of Happy Birthday, and hustled towards him.

"There you are," said Harry happily as he took a step forward and opened his arms to hug her.

There was a loud smack as Ginny's hand came into contact with Harry's cheek, sending him staggering back. When he finally looked back up at her, Harry saw her eyes were in fire with anger and her face was flushed.

"How could you!" she shrieked.

Entirely shocked and still reeling from Ginny's slap, Harry opened his mouth to speak, but found that he was at a complete loss for words.

"Don't give me any of that, Harry Potter! You know full well what you did! I can't _believe_ you'd rush off and do that!" Ginny continued to yell at him as the entire gathering stared wordlessly. Harry suspected that they were too shocked to say anything, much like he was.

"But… but… what?" Harry asked weakly as he touched his hand to his cheek. He winced as it was still stinging.

"Adopting! How could you make a choice like that without asking anyone? Do you have any idea how stupid that is?" she turned on her heel and marched back through the crowd. Harry couldn't see her, but he heard the back door to the Burrow slam closed.

It took a few minutes for everyone to unwind after Ginny's outburst, which left both Harry and Sarah feeling down. For that, Harry was quite upset. Sarah had been seriously bothered by the way Ginny had referred to her.

Trying to break the now somber mood, Fred and George stepped forward up towards Harry and have deep, extravagant bows.

"Dearest Harry-" said Fred

"Please forgive our sister-"

"Who's acting like a right bitc-"

"Fred!" berated Mrs. Weasley loudly.

"But we still love her anyways."

George produced a photo album from behind his back, which he handed to Harry. "Now we wondered what our hero would need when coming of age."

"At first we thought of Ginny."

"Mum didn't like that idea."

"We weren't sure if Ginny would have minded, though-"

"Then we thought of fireworks that insulted Voldemort."

"Dad didn't fancy that one-"

"Then we finally decided upon laughter!" they finished together.

Harry hesitantly opened the photo album. He was always reluctant to take things offered by the twins after seeing them at work for five years at Hogwarts. He looked at the first picture in shock for a few long seconds before he burst out laughing.

Bellatrix Lestrange was covered in thick, sticky green substance that looked like it had exploded all over the room. The Bellatrix in the picture thrashed around in complete rage as she tried to banish the slime unsuccessfully.

"How on earth did you do this?" he asked, still laughing as he continued to flip through the album. He passed similar pictures of Fenrir Greyback, Draco Malfoy, and Peter Pettigrew before stopping on the one of Severus Snape. "I don't know any difference with this one, do you?"

"We sent them each a package," said George proudly.

"It couldn't have been anything too dangerous-"

"They'd check for that, of course-"

"But we figured this would get by-"

"And it did."

"I'm not sure I notice any difference with the Snape picture-"

"He always was a grease ball anyways."

"But, but…" Harry said as he continued to laugh, watching the picture of Draco Malfoy trying to get all of the slime out of his hair. "How did you get pictures of them after they opened it?"

"Ah now that," Fred began.

"Is our little secret," George finished.

Both the twins leaned close to him and whispered in his ear. "We'll tell you later-"

"When we show you the practical side-"

"Of this present."

"In private though-"

"Wouldn't want mum to know what we were up to."

Both of them nodded and turned back to the crowd as Harry passed the photo album around to those who wanted to see. He caught Remus laughing and wiping a tear from his eye as the last true Marauder came upon the pictures of Pettigrew and Snape.

With everyone attending in a far happier mood after Fred and George's gift was given, people began mingling, eating and having a good time. The birthday boy himself began to slowly make his way through the group and thanking everyone for attending.

It wasn't long until Tonks pulled him aside with a mischievous grin on her face. Her hair was a violent shade of blue which matched her Weird Sisters shirt and even her pants. "Happy Birthday, Harry," she said with a child-like glee as she handed Harry a wrapped gift.

"Thanks, Tonks," he said as he unwrapped the gift carefully. As soon as he saw what it was he went crimson. "I… I…" he began, but was a loss for words.

Harry's reaction of course made others quite interested. Fred and George eagerly headed up to his side and tried to catch a glimpse of it, but Harry felt the most embarrassment when Remus started heading his way.

"Erm, thanks Tonks…" he said, not quite sure what to say. He held a copy of _How to please your Witch_ in his hand, trying futilely to keep the cover hidden so that no one else would see.

"Oh don't mention it, Harry," Tonks said, ignoring Harry's obvious discomfort and reddened face. "I think that's a handy thing for all men turning of age to have… though I am sure a few that aren't of age would have found it useful, too," she added cheerfully. This only added to Harry's discomfort.

Remus came up beside Tonks and looked between the young Auror and Harry, frowning. "What did she give you, Harry?" he asked.

Harry gulped and nearly choked on his own saliva as he quickly shrunk the book and stuck it into his pocket. "Just an interesting book, Remus," he said quickly though his face was clearly still flushed.

Leaning close to Harry's face, Tonks whispered into his ear. "Feel free to send Remus a copy of that for Christmas," she said before pulling away.

"What are you two on about?" Remus asked with amusement as he glanced between Tonks, seeing her cheerful attitude, and Harry with a deep red flush across his face. "Has Tonks been naughty again?"

_If only you knew… Luckily, no one is ever going to know_, he thought to himself as he gave a fake cough. "You could say that, but I need to get a drink…" he excused himself and quickly headed over to the table the Weasleys' had set up with a bunch of drinks.

As he reached for the ladle that was in the bowl of pumpkin juice, there was a spark and immediately a screeching sound as something shot rapidly out of the bowl. Throwing himself backwards, he landed painfully on his rear. Drawing his wand in one quick motion, he pointed it directly at the juice bowl.

There was a thin stream of smoke heading straight up into the sky, which Harry followed just in time to see a huge flash. _WHY FEAR THE DORK LORD WHEN HARRY POTTER IS AROUND?_ The words hung in the air for a few moments for disappearing.

"What do you know," said George from somewhere in the crowd.

"I guess we made the fireworks after all," Fred added.

"You trapped the pumpkin juice?" Mrs. Weasley's shrill voice screeched from beside the twins.

As Mrs. Weasley continued to scream at the twins, Harry smiled openly as he sipped his pumpkin juice. It was good to see that some things never changed despite the state of open war.

"Happy Birthday, Harry," came a dreamy voice from behind him. He spun around to see Luna Lovegood.

Luna was holding a glass of pumpkin juice in her hand and was dressed in surprisingly normal muggle clothes. Well, about as normal as one can get when having his or her wand stuck behind his or her ear for safe keeping and wearing a necklace made entirely of Butterbeer corks. "You didn't have any encounters with Nixies today, did you?"

Harry stared at her awkwardly. "Um… not that I remember. Should I have?"

The girl glanced over his body for a few moments before looking back up at him. "No, they're quite mischievous. They only appear on people's birthdays," she said seriously.

"I see," Harry replied, not sure what exactly to say. "It's a good thing I haven't seen any then."

She nodded, "You're pretty lucky, but that's why I got you this," she said reaching into her pocket and withdrawing a small leather pouch and handing it to him. "Nixie repellent," Luna said dreamily. "You sprinkle it around where you sleep the night before your birthday. Kind of useless now though…" she trailed off in thought.

"Thanks, Luna," Harry said with a smile as he opened the pouch to find glittering golden powder. He arched an eyebrow curiously. He had half expected to find sand or some other common substance.

"Now that's not all I got you," Luna continued as she turned around. "Daddy has the other one, though. Oh good, here he comes now."

The man that Harry had suspected was Luna's father came up. He built much like Arthur, except with blue eyes and blond hair. "And you must be Harry Potter," Mr. Lovegood said as he extended a hand.

"That's correct, sir," Harry said as he shook hands with the man.

"Please, call me Lloyd. Luna's told me quite a bit about you these past two summers and I'm happy to say that they make you seem quite a bit more human than all the other information that's out about you," Lloyd Lovegood said with a slight smile.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I haven't had a chance to read any of it, but I'd rather not, honestly."

Laughing slightly, Mr. Lovegood nodded. "Quite understandable, actually. Anyways, Luna made me hold on to one of your gifts since it needed to be shrunk down a bit." He withdrew a tiny rectangular box from his shirt pocket and enlarged it with a wave of his wand.

Taking the box from Mr. Lovegood, Harry opened it carefully. He picked up the thing blue quill with a large white feather on the end of it and examined it closely.

"A Thought-Writer quill," explained Luna happily as she caught Harry's questioning glance. "It writes down whatever you want it to write."

No sooner than Harry thought of something he wanted the quill to write, the quill leapt out of his grip and attacked Mrs. Weasley's tablecloth. It scribbled for a few moments before the words "Dearest Miss Lovegood, Thank you ever so much for the lovely birthday gift" were legible.

"I, uh," Harry mumbled as he read the words on the table cloth.

"Perhaps the drama charm was too strong on it," Luna said, who sounded quite disappointed.

"_Scourgify_," Harry muttered and the words vanished from Mrs. Weasley's tablecloth. He gave Luna a smiled. "Actually it'll come in handy if I ever need to disguise my writing."

Luna smiled happily at the comment and nodded, but it was Mr. Lovegood who spoke, looking rather nervous. "Harry, I wonder if I could have a word, in private."

"Sure, sir… err, Lloyd," Harry said with a feeling of nervousness himself.

"I think I'll go talk to Sarah. She was interested in Snorkacks and Heliopaths unlike some Gryffindor girls," Luna said dreamily as she headed off towards Sarah, who was talking amicably with Gabrielle Delacour. Harry wasn't sure whether or not Luna was taking a shot at Hermione's inability to be able to have a conversation with her, or if she was simply stating a fact.

Harry followed Lloyd Lovegood off to the corner of the Weasley's hedged in backyard and into the shade of a small tree. The older man turned around and gave Harry a nervous smiled before speaking.

"Luna plans to join you, as you must know," Lloyd said hesitantly.

Harry said nothing for a few moments as he sized up Mr. Lovegood. "And you're worried about her, aren't you? Well, of course you are," he added himself. "She's still underage and she wants to go fight Voldemort and do a bunch of dangerous things," Harry said slowly.

Lloyd nodded, relief spreading across his face. "I was worried you wouldn't understand, but that's it exactly. I mean I suppose any parent would be worried their daughter going off to live with a man who just turned seventeen," he said jokingly. He became more serious as Harry smirked slightly at the comment. "Now, I know Luna trusts you completely. You're one of her first true friends, I believe. It's just… she's all I have left," he said.

"She told me about her mother," Harry said simply. "I'm sorry. It must have been very hard on both you and Luna," he added sincerely.

"Thank you," Lloyd said, trying to keep his emotions under control. "I wasn't planning on stopping her from going with you, but after seeing you interact around here for five minutes I was convinced that it is the best option. She's a great judge of character, it seems," he said giving Harry a smile. "She had next to no friends in her own house, but she told me a few days ago what they all turned out to be. She then, in her fourth year, manages to become friends with some of the most power, kind and light-oriented wizards and witches at Hogwarts."

Harry frowned slightly, not having thought about that before. "That's quite interesting," he stated since he wasn't really sure why Mr. Lovegood had stopped. "I never thought of it that way."

Lloyd smiled, "She's a lot more special than for the way she acts." He sighed slightly and gave Harry an honest look. "I know you'll do your best, but still the father in me forces me to say this. Please take care of my daughter."

"I will, but I should tell you that she's very powerful and an excellent fighter when she wants to be. In the Department of Mysteries she took on at least six of Voldemort's best Death Eaters while helping two other incapacitated students. She didn't get a scratch on her," Harry said as he smiled at the memory. He still wasn't sure how she had managed that.

Mr. Lovegood laughed. "Yes, that does sound like my daughter. Speaking of daughters, I think I'll go rescue yours. She seems to be struggling with a concept mine is trying to explain to her. You're a fantastic man, Harry. Luna was correct in everything she told me about you. I hope for all our sakes you're successful."

Harry chuckled slightly as he saw Mr. Lovegood worm his way into Luna and Sarah's conversation. Before he had time for another thought he was grabbed by the arms and dragged towards the opposite corner of the yard.

"A Mr. Remus Lupin requests your presence," said Fred who had Harry's left arm clutched.

"It would be wise not to reject his wishes," added George who was holding Harry's right arm.

"I can walk, you know," Harry said somewhat bitterly, but still couldn't help but laugh on the inside.

The twins dumped him off beside Remus, who dismissed the twins with a lazy wave of his arm.

"You know, Remus," Harry began, looking at the werewolf. "You could have just called for me."

Remus smiled, "Yes, but where would be the fun in that?"

"Well, it wouldn't be as fun as accidentally letting Fred and George know about your alter ego from Hogwarts, now would it?" Harry shot back with a smirk.

Paling slightly, Remus laughed. "Alright, alright, you win," he said matching Harry's smirk. "Down to business then, I suppose. I'm sorry for being away, but I was knee-deep in a werewolf group run by our good friend Fenrir Greyback."

Harry fixed Remus with a smile, "Don't worry about it. We all have our things to do. I'm glad you were able to make it for this at least."

Remus gave a weak smile back. "Well," he began in a hushed voice, "I've heard about your second Order from Tonks, so I think it would be best if I gave you a little information first. You won't like it, though, but you need to hear it."

Nodding solemnly, Harry beckoned for Remus to continue.

"I am sure your birthday gift will lighten the mood afterwards, so first things first. I found out where Dudley is. Now, I thought it was rather odd when I saw him in an underground werewolf society, but Tonks filled me in on what happened while I was away."

Harry's mouth went dry. "H… how did he get there?" he stammered.

Remus shrugged. "I'm not sure, really. We were all transformed the night he was bitten of course. He showed up two days later. Though uh…"

"Just tell me Remus, I'm sure I'll find out whatever you don't want to tell me sooner or later, and frankly it should be sooner," Harry said with a sigh.

"Dudley seems to enjoy being a werewolf. Its certainly slimmed him down quite a bit and made him more fit. I don't think he realizes that it was Greyback who bit him, though, but he certainly seems to enjoy thinking about harming you and your friends," Lupin said carefully, knowing that it would upset Harry a great deal.

Harry simply headed over a few feet and dropped himself into a chair. Sighing, he desperately tried to tell himself that Dudley was under the influence of the Imperius curse or something else. However, he knew that this was unlikely. Dudley lived by causing others to fear him and being a werewolf with extra strength along with the ability to inspire fear without doing anything was something that would appeal to him.

"I know that's a bit of a shock, but you have to remember that it's Dudley's choice to do what he wants," Remus said, coming up to stand beside Harry. "You don't control Dudley's life, so you shouldn't feel the need to take responsibility for Dudley's actions."

"I know, Remus, but the fact remains, Greyback was after me that night. I've tried to stop feeling guilty about Dudley and his friends, but all I've managed to do is hide it deep down inside. This is just like a slap in the face. I knew the Dursleys hated me, but to have one of them actually turn and go to Voldemort's side?" Harry shook his head in disbelief.

"You can't control people's lives, Harry," Remus said calm as he put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "However, you can make them better." The Marauder got his cheeky grin back. "Such as, imagine the shock I received when I came back and found out that you had a daughter?"

Harry laughed, realizing just how big a shock it would be for everyone who woke up in the morning and read Parkinson's _Prophet_ article. "I can see your point, but I definitely don't have any regrets."

"I highly doubt you would have. From what I've seen she seems to be smart and with a fiery streak about her. Kinda reminds me of you," Remus said with a smirk.

"You've been talking to Ron, haven't you?" Harry said as he rolled his eyes and laughed. "She's a talented girl. It was horrible what happened to her and I couldn't let her go live with relatives that wouldn't care about her."

"With all the makings of a regular inquisitive Ravenclaw," Remus said as he gestured over to where Sarah and Luna were in a deep discussion about something or other.

Harry smiled. "She's already read through a good section of the books we bought to help us get some training. If Hermione's not careful, she'll get put to shame."

"And the markings of a regular Lovegood, too, by the sound of it," Remus added with another smirk as he and Harry overheard Sarah mention Heliopaths.

"Hermione will be thrilled, I'm sure. If she wants to believe things like that I won't stop her," Harry stated as he watched Sarah and Luna interact. Apparently Lloyd Lovegood had given up trying to end their discussion.

"However," Remus said thoughtfully. "Luna may be right about several things."

Harry looked up at him in surprise. "But Hermione said…"

The Marauder smiled down at him and winked. "Hermione has a different type of mind than Luna as I'm sure you've realized. When I taught in your third year, Luna would spend a lot of time reading books, upside down of course, and then form conclusions based on small bits of evidence. In fact, I'm almost certain that she's right about that Heliopath theory of hers. Don't sell her short just because Hermione would never believe small pieces of evidence spread out over many different volumes of books."

Shaking his head in shock, Harry smiled. "It's all too much to believe, but I'll keep that in mind. I never did doubt her intelligence or anything. In fact I just finished telling Mr. Lovegood the same thing."

Remus nodded and gave another cheeky grin, "Now if things were only smooth with Ginny, right? I don't know about you anymore, Harry. Before you'd come talk to Sirius or I about things, but all of a sudden I find out you've been dating Ginny… adopting a daughter and who knows what else." He finished by giving Harry a mock glare.

The Boy who Lived blushed. "There have been a lot of things happening, you know," he said in reply while Remus just laughed at Harry's reaction. "I'm not really sure what's gotten into Ginny," he said with a sigh. "I figure I'll let her cool off a bit before trying to talk to her, you know?" he said sadly. "I'll never figure out women as long as I live, Remus."

"You, I and every other guy will never know, Harry. It's a fact of life," he said as he glanced over at Tonks and reddened slightly. "You're probably right about giving her time to cool off, once. Ginny's a lot like Lily in many ways. Once, James and Lily got into an argument in their seventh year. It took your dad all of five minutes to realize what a complete prat he had been so he went to apologize. However, Lily was still fuming from the argument. After the week James spent in the hospital wing, Lily was ready to talk to him," Remus said with a small laugh.

Nodding, Harry smiled sadly at Remus' short story.

"Anyways," Remus began as he pulled something out of his pocket and enlarged it. "Speaking of your parents, your dad and Sirius were probably wondering why I waited over a year to give this to you, while your mum is probably shrieking and wishing she could harm me in some way," he said with a giant grin. He saluted the clouds before turning back to Harry. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to kneel for this."

Harry glanced up at Remus warily. While he did trust Remus, he was wary about trusting Moony. After all, who in their right mind would fully trust someone whose motto was _I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_. He slid off the chair and kneeled on the ground as instructed.

Moony cracked a huge grin which made Harry nervous. "Sorry," Remus said, though Harry strongly suspected that he was savoring every moment of this. "This ritual was devised many years ago." He set down the small wooden chest onto the chair where Harry was previously sitting and drew his wand. Tapping the chest three times with his wand and speaking the words "_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_" three times, the lid clicked and popped open. He reached in and withdrew what looked to be an old, leather bound book.

Holding the book on his right hand, he touched it face down to the top of Harry's head. "Do you solemnly swear to cause trouble and mischief whenever the opportunity should present itself?"

Harry wasn't sure what to do, but he spoke quickly. "I do."

"Furthermore, do you solemnly swear to prank one Severus Snape to the fullest of your ability?"

"I do," Harry replied again, thinking about how he'd much rather do so many other things to Snape rather than prank him.

"By the power vested in me, Moony, as the final Marauder and speaking for Messrs. Padfoot and Prongs, I hereby pronounce you a true Marauder. Arise, Harry," Remus said dramatically as he pulled away the book from the boy's head.

Harry stood up quickly. "Harry?" he asked. "What kind of nickname is Harry?"

Moony smiled. "Well, you aren't an Animagus so I am not allowed to give you a nickname. Should you obtain one in the future I shall be happy to make the required changes." He handed the book to Harry. "Now this is what I wanted to give you. I'm sure Sirius did as well, but consider it a gift from Prongs as well as Padfoot and I."

In awe, Harry quickly read the cover of the book.

_The Marauder's Log_

_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs_

Not quite believing it, he flipped to about halfway through the book and read one of the entries, which was written in a nearly illegible scribble.

"You can always tell when Padfoot was the one to write the log entries," Remus commented as he leaned over to see the page.

Harry smiled at the thought and looked back down at the page.

_Mr. Prongs was able to cast Fidelius on the Slytherin's common room entrance today. An excellent amount of chaos ensued as all the snakes couldn't find their way in and out of their own dorms._

_When the spell had been removed by Professor Dumbledore, Mr. Wormtail was able to sneak in and put a biting hex on Snivellus' socks._

Harry shook his head in disbelief. "How long have you had this?"

"Since a few days after Sirius passed away," Remus said solemnly. "It was hidden away by the four of us after we graduated from Hogwarts. We each held a clue to where we hid and we memory charmed ourselves after wards," he scratched his head thoughtfully. "I'm not sure why exactly we did it, but it was fun at the time. Sirius and I both got James' clue after Godric's Hollow, and just last year I got Sirius."

"But then you were still missing Pettigrew's," Harry said bitterly.

Remus smiled, "Maybe so, but we never gave him too important of tasks. I figured it out without his information." Harry noticed that Mr. Moony seemed pleased at this fact. "Now, I heard from Ron right before you joined me that you somehow made the kitchen at the Dursley's vanish." Remus fixed him with a Marauder style grin. "That being said, I now feel safe that this truly will be in good hands."

"Thanks, Remus," Harry said softly as he scanned another page of the Log, which he suspected was in his father's handwriting. "This means a lot to me." He looked back over at where Ron and Hermione looking through the photo album the twins had given him. "I'm sure I'll put this information to good use."

Moony winked conspiratorially at him. "I'd expect nothing less. Ah, Alastor. Good to see you again," he called in greeting over Harry's shoulder as the aging ex-Auror came up to the two of them.

"Afternoon, Lupin," Moody said gruffly. "I've got to get going soon so I figured I'd better give Potter some useful things for his birthday in person."

Harry turned his attention to Moody. He suspected that he'd receive some form of dark detectors.

"First, I gotta hand it to you, Potter," Moody said as his magical eye whirled around and fixed itself on someone out of Harry's sight. "I never expected the situation with the Williams girl to work out this well."

Turning until he caught sight of Sarah, Harry smiled. "I think you give me too much credit. Sarah's a strong girl."

Moody chuckled slightly, which unnerved Harry. "Stop selling yourself short, Potter. You were there for her when she needed it. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for and it inspires others around you. You made good on your promise to always be there for her by adopting. I've seen people who go through what she's gone through and never recover," Moody said as his magical eye spun back to face Harry. "What's the matter, Potter? Ears burning?"

Harry's cheeks were completely reddened as Moody recounted his involvement. "I suppose it sounds like a lot if you put it like that…"

"Cut the nonsense, Potter," Moody said sharply. He reached under his cloak, which he was wearing despite the hot weather, and withdrew what looked like a pile of leather. "Wand holsters. Enough for all your friends," he said as he tossed them to Harry. "Put 'em on your upper arms. Cuts wand drawing time by almost half. These could save your life, Potter."

Harry simply nodded as he tried one of the holsters on and slid his wand into it. He drew it rather awkwardly as Moody shook his head. "I guess I need some practice with it."

"You'll want to do that, Potter," Moody said as he pulled what resembled a small muggle briefcase from underneath his cloak. "Now these," he explained as he opened the case, "are dark detectors."

"How exactly do they detect dark wizards? Anyone can be a dark wizard," Harry said as he examined the curious little glass objects. There were four small glass orbs and a silver instrument that looked like it could have come straight from Dumbledore's office.

Moody glared at Harry. "They detect intentions, Potter. You place the four orbs around the perimeter of the area you want monitored. If anyone with harmful intentions comes within the area it sets of this main instrument. It makes a high pitched sound so you can't miss it."

"Erm, I see," said Harry thoughtfully. "These would be perfect for our new headquarters."

"Which is why I got you them, Potter. They're pretty hard to find," Moody said as he checked his pocket watch. "I best be going. Scrimgeour wanted a word with me about some Order of the Phoenix business," he said with a growl. He pulled out his wand, but hestitated. "Also, I secured a trip to Azkaban. Just the two of us a week from now. I had to call in more than one favor to do get it, so whatever you're looking for better be with it."

Harry nodded. "Trust me, it is _very_ important," he said putting special emphasis on very. He would have told Moody more if it wasn't for the others at the party that might overhear.

Moody nodded and disappeared soundlessly.

"Oi, Harry!" Ron called from halfway across the Weasley's backyard.

Harry turned around to see Ron waving him over. He was standing with Neville, who was staring at the photo album with a un-Neville like smirk on his face.

"I guess I better get going. Ron's pretty impatient sometimes," Harry said as he turned back to Remus.

Remus gave him a slightly out of character smirk and nodded. "Have fun. It's your party after all."

Harry took I step forward, but instantly fell flat on his face. He rolled over to find his feet charmed together. He looked back up at Moony.

"Mischief managed," Mr. Moony said with a grin. With a flick of his wand, he removed the spell.

Harry rolled his eyes and stood up. He brushed himself off as he called out over the guests. "Hey, Fred! George!"

The twins turned to him from where they were currently talking with Charlie. "Do our ears deceive us?" asked George.

"Could be," said Fred.

"Harry wants us?"

"What an honor."

"A large honor."

"Actually, guys, I was wondering if you'd like to spend some time with Mr. Moony over here," he said with jerking his thumb back at Remus, who noticeably paled at Harry's comment.

The twins' eyes widened in surprised. The immediately rushed over to where Remus was standing nervously.

"Remus, old friend."

"Or should we say Moony."

"Moony is good."

"But more importantly-"

"Why didn't you tell us?" they both finished in unison.

Harry turned back and winked in Remus' direction. "Mischief managed," he said happily as he headed towards Ron and Neville.

"Did you see this picture of Bellatrix?" Neville asked as soon as Harry was next to him and Ron.

"Err, yeah," Harry replied. "Look, Neville, I'm sorry about your parents…"

Neville took a deep breath and nodded. "It's ok, Harry. I'm going to find Bellatrix and stop her."

"Not if I get to her first," Harry reminded him. Neville laughed hollowly. "We can stop her together, of course."

The other boy gave a determined look. "Anyways, here," Neville said as he handed Harry a standard cardboard box.

Harry opened the lid to see an arrangement of items. He honestly had no clue what most of the items were, but at the bottom he spotted the familiar shiny material of an invisibility cloak. "Thanks, Neville," he said as he studied some of the items more closely.

"They were my dad's old Auror things," Neville said proudly.

Harry's head shot straight back up as he looked at Neville critically. "Are you sure you want to give me these things?" he asked. "I won't be upset if you want to keep them."

Neville shook his head. "I've wanted to be an Auror these past few years like my dad as well, but I know I'll be following you, not leading. I'm sure that these will help us all."

Harry's stomach gave a lurch as another unidentified feeling washed over him. He gently closed the lid and shrunk the box down to fit in his already crowded pocket. Smiling, he nodded towards Neville. "This means quite a bit to me, thank you."

Neville's expression changed to an excited one. "Gran says she's proud of me for deciding to go with you to fight Voldemort. I've been practicing Occlumency and Apparation all month, so I'm sure to at least pass my Apparation exam."

Harry's heart sank. He had forgotten entirely about Apparation. "Err, Neville, when is the next Apparation exam?"

"August 5th. What's wrong?" Neville asked as he caught sight of Harry's nervous look.

"I… I forgot to practice Apparating this past month," he said, slightly embarrassed.

Neville laughed. "Harry if there's one thing I've learned from being in the same dorm as you for six years; it's that you can learn anything in a short amount of time. It only took me a like a week and a half outside of Hogwarts. Gran taught me."

Harry shrugged. "We'll see, but we'll also have to have Ginny and Luna practice even if they can't get their licenses."

"Oh, Luna's already able to Apparate," Neville said and Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "She said she was practicing with her dad since she got home."

"Full of surprises," Harry muttered as Ron turned back to the conversation with a slightly mindless glaze expression. "And you," Harry said looking at Ron, "have to stop looking at Fleur."

Ron shook his head to clear it of the Veela's effect. "It's kinda hard when she's standing a few feet away and planning on marrying my brother," Ron said sarcastically. "And what are you on about, not being able to Apparate? You can do it fine. Since I have to retake the test anyways we can all go together."

Harry and Neville agreed and talked about who else might be there taking the test. It was assumed that everyone from their year that was eligible to do so would be trying to pass at the very least.

After a short while of idle talk about Quidditch and other things that they'd like to do once Voldemort had been defeated, Neville looked over his shoulder at his Grandmother.

"I think my Gran wants to talk to you," he told Harry.

Harry shrugged and excused himself to head over to Augusta Longbottom.

Mrs. Longbottom was talking with Professor McGonagall, but both older women looked over at Harry expectantly as he approached.

"Hello, Mrs. Longbottom. Professor McGonagall," Harry said, greeting both of them. "Neville said that you wanted to talk to me?"

Augusta Longbottom nodded, "I just wanted to say thank you for making Neville reached his full potential."

Harry shook his head. "Neville reached it on his own. Professor McGonagall can tell you that all he lacked was confidence."

Professor McGonagall drew her lips into a small straight line at this comment. "That may be true, Mr. Potter, but it is you who gave him reason to have confidence."

"Confronting Bellatrix Lestrange in the Department of Mysteries brought him out," Mrs. Longbottom added proudly.

"If you say so," Harry said softly. "He was always strong, he just needed his own wand."

Mrs. Longbottom nodded grimly. "Yes, I admit that was my mistake. I wanted Neville to be as great as his father so I forced his father's wand upon him. I was foolish to do so."

Harry noticed that both Mrs. Longbottom and Professor McGonagall looked as if they wanted to say something else. "There's something else here, isn't there?" he asked slowly.

"We know that you're not planning on going back to Hogwarts this year," Professor McGonagall began, "But we were wondering if you were planning to send Miss Potter."

Slightly reeling from the name, Harry shrugged. "I'm worried about it being safe, but if Sarah wants to go she can go. I won't try to stop her from going if she really wants to."

Professor McGonagall nodded, but continued to speak anyways. "The Board of Governors is thinking of closing down the school. They're using you as an example, I'm afraid."

Harry shook his head in disgust. "Typical," he muttered.

"Your daughter, though, could swing the vote in favor of re-opening the school," Augusta Longbottom said.

"You are not using Sarah to dangle in front of the Board of Governors to show that it's safe," Harry said flatly. "I am not going to turn Sarah in to some media event like everyone keeps trying to do to me."

Mrs. Longbottom sighed. "Perhaps, then, would you make a statement about Hogwarts being safe? It really should be open for those who wish to go."

Harry nodded. "That I can do. I figure that Hogwarts will be pretty safe as long as my friends and I aren't there anyways. Safer than usual, anyways."

"Excellent," said Mrs. Longbottom. "I have things to attend to with the Board, so I'll leave you. Minerva has something to give you anyways."

The elderly lady headed back over to where Neville was talking with Ron. Harry noticed that Mrs. Longbottom was using a cane and walking with a considerable limp, most likely from the attack on Neville's parents in St. Mungo's.

Professor McGonagall wasted no time in slipping a golden ring set with red rubies off of her finger and handing it to Harry. "Godric Gryffindor's ring," she explained.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "Why… why are you giving this to me and why do you have it?"

"Always so inquisitive, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said with a smile. "The ring has been passed down to all the Heads of Gryffindor House since Godric himself passed away."

"But doesn't the new Head deserve it?" Harry asked.

"The new Head will be Hagrid, and I have already talked it over with him. He agreed that he'd rather see you have it. You are, after all, seem to channel Godric's spirit most of the time," McGonagall explained.

"I… I'm not sure what to say," he stammered as he slipped the ancient ring into his left hand. The ring shrunk slightly to accommodate his finger perfectly.

"Gryffindors forward, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said while suppressing a smile. "Also, I can't help but notice than you and a certain five other students are up to something."

Harry paled slightly. _Is it really that obvious?_ "Uhh…"

"Don't worry, Mr. Potter. I fully support you. Albus had explicit faith in your actions and that carries over to me as well. I will aid you as best I can from Hogwarts."

Sighing in relief, Harry reddened now. "Professor Dumbledore left me with some major responsibilities," he admitted. "But I will deal with them because I have to. I'd like to tell you what I have to do, but…"

"The less people that know, the better. Albus was the same way," finished Professor McGonagall.

They talked for a few more minutes about things that Harry would have been learning in seventh year in case he and his friends wished to learn them on their own. Harry assured her that they'd probably come out of the next year knowing a lot more than would just be learned in seventh year.

After bidding good-bye to Professor McGonagall, he headed towards Bill and Charlie, who he hadn't talked to yet when a large barn owl swooped down and landed on a chair in front of him. It was carrying a package wrapped in brown paper with a roll of parchment stuck to the top.

Unrolling the parchment, Harry read the easily recognizable scrawl as Hagrid's writing.

_Happy Birthday, Harry!_

_I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Grawp's acting up again and I can't leave him. I sent you something that has been in my family for a while. Nundu gloves. They were made by my grand dad. They got some interesting powers. I can't wear them because they're too small. I hope you can find a use for them._

_Hagrid_

He re-read the letter once more before opening the package to reveal a pair of rather normal looking brown cloves. They appeared to be made of some sort of leather, but he was sure they were a lot more magical than they looked. He decided against trying them right now. A lot of Hagrid's gifts had proved wise not to try unless you were entirely sure about their effects.

Once he had carefully put the Nundu gloves into his overcrowded pockets, Harry set off to find some of the few people he hadn't talked to yet. He spied Bill and Charlie talking about Quidditch in a happy, carefree manner that Harry associated with the twins more than any other Weasley.

"Ah, there you are, Harry," Bill said. He still wore his dragon fang earring, dragonhide boots and wore his hair long. It seemed that Mrs. Weasley was still losing that battle. However, Bill's face was now comprised of many long, visible scars. While this seemed to destroy his once sought after good looks, Harry was very glad to see that this didn't seem to affect Bill's personality at all.

Charlie remained the same as well. He wore a complete set of dragonhide, which he had explained previously protected him from most dragon burns. He still had a shiny burn on his forearm, though.

"Yeah, I'm around," Harry said with a small smile. "I keep getting dragged all over the place, though."

"You should learn to ride dragons, then," Charlie joked. "You'd be able to get around a lot easier then."

"No time to learn that," Harry said with a laugh. He took a slight moment to examine the scars on Bill's face.

"That's about as healed as they'll get, I'm afraid," Bill said as he caught Harry looking.

Harry reddened. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare at them. I don't like it when people look at this ruddy scar I have…"

Bill shrugged. "I get it a lot. I just don't let it bother me. Fleur doesn't mind and neither does anyone else I care about."

"So, what happens on the full moon? Last I heard the Healers were still unsure," Harry asked.

"Nothing much. My personality changes a bit, but I stay fully human. I can drink bit of Wolfsbane potion and act normal throughout a full moon, but of course they can't heal the scars since they're from a werewolf," Bill explained with another casual shrug. "I heard you and Ron beat up Greyback, though," he added with a smile.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well you _could_ say that, or you can believe the truth and admit we were lucky."

"Modest as always, I see," Bill said with a grin. He moved his left hand to his right arm.

It was now that Harry realized Bill was in fact wearing two watches. He watched as the eldest Weasley child removed one of them, a completely black one with silver numbers and hands, and handed it to him.

"Standard curse breaker's watch," Bill informed him with a grin. "Latest model too, I had to get one for myself as well," he said as he held up his arm so that Harry could see a similar watch. Bill's was entirely silver with black numbers and hands.

"What does it do?" Harry asked as he slid the watch on to his left forearm.

"You hold it up to an item, door, or something else and it'll glow to indicate the severity and strength of the curse. For instance, non-cursed items will make the face glow blue. Severely cursed items will make it glow pitch black and so on. There's a little manual that comes with it explaining all the colors…" Bill trailed off as he started to look through his pockets. He eventually found what he was looking for and pulled out a book the size of a small diary. "There you go, a bit of light reading," he said with another cheeky grin.

Harry flipped through the first few pages and, upon seeing only complex diagrams and explanations, sighed. "As if I don't have enough things to read. Seriously though, thanks. This will be very useful, I have this feeling," he said as he thought about all the curses and traps that probably guarded all of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

"You better watch out, bro," Charlie commented. "He'll probably become a better Curse Breaker than you. Ron says he's always the best at whatever he does."

Bill glared at his younger brother. "Just because he's a better Seeker than you doesn't mean he'll be better than me too."

"I am not a better Seeker than Charlie," Harry said flatly. "Everyone continues to compare me to him, but very few say I'm better."

"Aha!" Charlie said triumphantly as he punched the air like a little kid. "I told you, bro. Weasleys are sometimes better than him!"

"Just what was Ron been telling you?" Harry said with a frown.

"Oh nothing much, just how amazing you are. Oh, before I forget, this can help you get back at Ron," Charlie said as he showed Harry a small wooden pipe that looked like it could be used for shooting blow darts. "Dragon horn," he said.

"Err, how does that sounds like a dragon?" Harry asked skeptically.

Charlie shook his head sadly and turned to Bill. "Despite all this greatness he's still new to this whole magic concept, isn't he?"

Bill nodded. "Definitely is."

Charlie turned back to Harry. "It's charmed by dragon handlers in Romania, of course," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The harder you blow on it, the louder the sound. Simple, no?"

"Har har," Harry muttered as he took the wooden pipe and put it up to his lips.

"No!" Charlie said instantly, barely getting Harry to stop in time. "Don't let Ron know you have that."

"Why not?" Harry asked. "Does he want one?"

"Oh no, you misunderstand me. Bill and I want to prank ickle Ronnikens. Next time he starts snoring, go right up to him and blow as hard as you can on horn. Make sure you get lots of pictures," Charlie said with a grin while Bill nodded eagerly behind him. Harry began to wonder if the twins could have some competition in their family.

Harry sighed and nodded. "I'll be sure to do that next time he keeps me up."

"Excellent," said Bill and Charlie together as they looked at Ron with smirks on their faces.

"Dare I ask _why_ you want to prank Ron?" Harry asked.

"Just some old stuff from a couple of years ago," Bill replied cryptically.

"And people say Fred and George are bad," Harry muttered as he added the Dragon horn to his pocket of shrunken objects.

"No, Fred and George just don't care if they get caught," Charlie whispered to Harry as Fleur and Gabrielle approached.

"'Arry!" exclaimed Gabrielle as she ran up and wrapped her arms around Harry's chest like Sarah used to do. "I am so glad to see you again!"

"Hi, Gabrielle," Harry said awkwardly as he tried to detach himself from the younger girl.

"'Arry! 'Appy birthday!" Fleur said as she grabbed her younger sister's hand and pulled her away from Harry's waist rather firmly. "Gabrielle, 'e must breathe!"

Harry blushed slightly, "No no, that's fine." He smiled at the younger girl. "How are you liking Britain so far? Your English is quite good."

"'eet ees fantastique!" Gabrielle explained excitedly.

"She 'as been talking about meeting you for a while," Fleur commented. "Ehvar since she arrived."

"So, when is the wedding?" Harry asked, remembering why Gabrielle was supposed to be coming to Britain in the first place.

"What? 'As Bill not told you?" Fleur exclaimed. "Bill!" she said sharply turning to her fiancée.

"We were just getting to that!" Bill said defensively. "Right, Harry?" he shot a look at Harry, a plea evident in his eyes.

"I… uh, yeah. He was just telling me what day you guys decided on," Harry said quickly.

Bill nodded quickly. "August 25th. I was also about to ask you to be one of my Groomsmen."

"I... uh… don't know anything about that," Harry said slowly. He wasn't sure he wanted to be part of a wedding without having a clue what to do.

"It's easy. Trust me, Fleur will explain everything in time," Bill said as his fiancée finally stopped giving him an evil glare.

"You must! Ginny ees going to be a bridesmaid! You two would look fantastique together!" Fleur said as she launched into an explanation about how Groomsmen and Bridesmaids being couples were often taken as a sign that the marriage would last a long time.

He tried not to think of Ginny as Fleur continued to detail the wedding, with some help from Gabrielle as Bill tried to not look overwhelmed. Eventually, Fleur stopped her rant.

"Oh, 'Arry I am so sorry!" she said, a red tint appearing on her cheeks. "I was going to give you your gift!" She reached into her light summer robes and withdrew an amulet that looked like a blue crystal.

Harry took it, getting an instant feeling of warmth when he touched the crystal. "This is quite beautiful, thank you," he said, not entirely sure what it was.

"Eet ees a Veela charm," Fleur said as Gabrielle nodded. "Eet ees said to have special magic."

"I see," Harry said as he slipped off the necklace that Sarah had given him earlier that morning. He added the Veela charm to the chain, letting it hang underneath the smaller present from Sarah.

"Perfect," said Fleur happily. "Eet looks quite good on you."

Harry smiled. "Anyways, I think I better go thank Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for all of this around here before dinner," he said. "Thank you both for the charm."

"'Ave a good day, 'Arry," Gabrielle said as Harry looked around through the crowd to find Ron's parents.

He found Arthur and Molly by the backdoor of the Burrow, rushing in and out of the kitchen and preparing what looked like a vast amount of food. "Hello, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley," he said, causing the two adults to look up. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"Good heavens no, dear," Molly said instantly. "This is your party. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself."

Harry smiled slightly. "But you're cooking for like… a lot of people," Harry finished lamely.

"It's ok, Harry. We've raised seven children. We can handle some stress and running around," Arthur added.

"If you say so," Harry said as he looked down at his feet. "Thank you, seriously. The party is amazing. This must have been a lot of work."

Mrs. Weasley blushed slightly. "It's nothing, dear. This is your coming of age party. It deserves to be spectacular."

Harry sighed. "I know… I just never thought any of my birthdays were really special."

"Now don't you think about your times with the Dursleys," Arthur warned him. "Those days are past you forever now. I understand you've purchased a house and everything."

"And about that," Mrs. Weasley began, her tone changing. "What is this I hear about Ginny planning on joining you in some anti-You-Know-Who crusade?"

Harry flinched under Mrs. Weasley's hard glare. "It's what she wants," he said weakly.

"She should stay where she's safe," Molly said, her voice rising dangerously.

"But Molly dear…" Arthur began, but was silenced by a quick glare.

"She's not even of age," Mrs. Weasley began to rant. "How can she expect to defend herself?"

"I think it's about time we stopped caring about that law when lots of people's lives are at stake," Harry said calmly.

"Leave this to the Order and Ministry. Minister Scrimgeour is a lot better than Fudge was-"

"No, Molly," Arthur said calmly. Mrs. Weasley's train of thought was derailed by Arthur's comment, however softly spoken. "I think Harry is right. Ginny is right too. How many times have they been the center of You-Know-Who's plots? Ginny should be allowed to do as she pleases."

Both Harry and Mrs. Weasley were shocked. Harry had never seen Arthur stand up to Molly the whole time he had known them.

"She's not even sixteen, Arthur!" Molly practically shrieked. "How you can you say that? They'll all be killed!"

"They won't, Molly. You know them better than that. They've survived well over two battles now. That's more than us," Arthur continued in the same soft tone.

"But… but…" Mrs. Weasley's argument faltered as she realized that Mr. Weasley was right. "It's too dangerous, Arthur. She's our baby."

"Ginny has not been a baby for many years, Molly. She's quite a talented witch."

"I…" Mrs. Weasley's jaw opened and closed, but she spoke no words.

"I'll make sure she's ok, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said finally.

"Fine," Mrs. Weasley snapped as she hurried back into the kitchen.

Arthur sighed and turned back to Harry. "I'm sorry about that, but please, do take care of Ginny. She really is our baby, but I know that this is just the right thing to do. With you, Ron and Hermione along with the others she's probably more safe than here at the Burrow."

"I'll do my best, Mr. Weasley," Harry said with a determined tone. "I won't let you down."

"I'm sure you won't," Arthur replied with a small smile. "Albus has always said that you were our only hope."

Harry frowned. "When did Professor Dumbledore ever say that?"

"Well, maybe it was more what he didn't say," Arthur said without elaborating. "Molly and I have always thought of you as a son, but I want to let you know that we're already proud of you."

Reddening again, which was becoming an all too normal scene today, Harry nodded silently. "That means a lot. You lot were always overly kind to me for no real reason."

"Your actions spoke for themselves. You befriended Ron despite him having only second hand robes and books. You saved Ginny in your second year and you always helped those around you," Arthur rattled off example after example.

Sighing, Harry nodded in defeat. "I suppose you're right, Mr. Weasley. Speaking of Ginny, where is she?"

Arthur winced slightly. "She's in her room, Harry. She feels terrible about what she did…"

Harry held up a hand. "I'm not going to yell at her, but I'd like to know what she was going on about."

Mr. Weasley nodded. "In that case, good luck. She's a lot like Molly… who I need to go help with dinner now."

Bidding Mr. Weasley good-bye, Harry headed throw the Weasley's living room until he came up Aberforth Dumbledore coming out of the 'loo.

"Ah, good, Harry, I was just looking for you," Aberforth said in a very familiar manner. "I wanted to give you these," he said holding up a wooly pair of socks.

"Err…" Harry said, eyeing the socks.

"They were Albus' favorite pair of socks. He wore them every time he had to do something important. I am sure they come with a heat regulation spell too so they'll never be too hot or too cold," the elder Dumbledore said.

Harry took the socks in his hand, wondering if what Aberforth was saying was true. It wasn't as if Aberforth had any reason to lie, though, so Harry held them in his hand.

Before Harry could say another word, Aberforth spoke. "Well I must help Molly prepare that delicious meal…" Aberforth said before he headed off towards the kitchen, humming to himself.

Harry shook his head and tried to recount what had just happened. For the first time he respected that Aberforth and Albus were brothers beyond just their appearance.

He trudged up the spiral staircase to the second floor of the Burrow where Ginny and Ron both had rooms. As he reached Ginny's door, he heard the distinct sound of crying coming from within. He knocked softly on the door, but didn't wait for an answer.

Ginny was curled up on her bed, her head pressed to her knees, which she had pulled up to her chest. She was crying and didn't bother to look up.

"Ginny?" he asked as he came over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

She looked up at him with a tear streaked face, but said nothing.

Harry simply wrapped an arm around her and gave her a reassuring hug, rubbing his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion.

"You must never want to see me again," Ginny choked.

Harry frowned at her. "And why would you think that?"

"Because of what I did. I was a complete bitch," she said, sniffling.

"Well, I won't pretend that I'm not wondering why you did what you did, or that I'm not upset or anything, but I'm hoping you'll fill me in," Harry replied.

She continued to sob for a few moments and Harry wondered how many times he'd be comforting a crying girl in the future. He still didn't believe he'd ever get used to it.

"You always run off and do things like this no matter what trouble they cause you," Ginny said as she wiped her face off with her sleeve.

Harry stared at her. "I expect things like that from Hermione, not you," he said with a slight grin.

"I know!" Ginny said sobbing again. "I told you it was stupid. I mean what do you think of me now?"

Harry shrugged. "That you're exactly like your mother?"

Ginny choked out a laugh as she curled against Harry's side. "Oh I'm sorry, Harry, I just saw that you ran off and did something serious like it was no big deal. Adopting is huge and I thought I could make you realize it…" she trailed off.

Saying nothing, Harry simply held her until her sobbing subsided.

"You're better off without me," she said sadly.

"What was that?" Harry asked, his tone rising. "Weren't you the one that told me that I wasn't allowed to break up with you?"

"Yes, but… you'd be better off with out me. Look at this, I'm just an immature little girl. You five can go off to headquarters without me," she said, looking down at legs.

Harry stood up and looked down at Ginny with a glare. "Get up," he said plainly.

She looked up at him, surprised at his tone. She slowly got to her feet as he instructed.

"Weren't you the one that said that you wanted to go after ands top Voldemort?"

Ginny nodded.

"And the one that said I wouldn't be getting rid of you that easily?"

She nodded again.

"And what are you trying to do now?"

She looked up, smiling slightly. "You're right…" she said softly. "What am I doing?"

"Trying to run away," Harry said, his tone softening. "Now then, are you back to the Ginny I know?"

She nodded a third time.

"Good, now come here," he said with a small grin.

She moved closer and he immediately pulled her into an embrace. "I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear. "For both things."

"I know," Harry said as he kissed her on the cheek. "Now then, I think your parents will have dinner ready soon. Shall we go down and see what we can do to help?"

"But Harry," Ginny said, surprised. "It's your birthday, you don't need to help."

"No, but as you said earlier, when has that ever stopped me before?"

As the two of them reached the door, Ginny gasped and pulled him back inside. She closed the door behind them. "I almost forgot to give you your birthday present," she said. "Now close your eyes," she instructed.

Harry did as he was told, wondering just what the youngest Weasley was going to give him.

* * *

Dinner was a much more relaxed and happy affair once Ginny had apologized to everyone for her earlier behavior. Everyone was enjoying the giant meal that Arthur and Molly had cooked, with some help from Harry and Ginny at the end.

The main course was some delicious Shepard's pie, which had fast become one of Harry's favorite meals at Hogwarts. Along with quite a few chickens, raised on the Weasley's property, there was a lot to choose from. Some of the people at dinner, mainly Bill, Charlie and the twins had managed to sneak some Firewhisky to the table and were drinking that mixed with their Pumpkin Juice. Eventually Mrs. Weasley had noticed this and began screeching at them, but Mr. Weasley had gotten her calmed down rather quickly.

Harry was not yet off the hook for Birthday celebrating. As Mrs. Weasley produced a giant cake with exactly seventeen candles on top, Harry noticed some words scrawled in icing along the side. _17 Death Eaters were harmed in the making of this cake_.

When Mrs. Weasley saw it, she immediately turned to Fred and George, shrieking.

When everyone had calmed down and eaten their fill of cake, Mrs. Weasley plunked down a large jar on the table in front of Harry. "This is your birthday gift, dear," she said with a smile. "A never ending jar of candy. Since some of you will be living together and I know that _some_ of my children-" she glared directly at Ron "- like to eat people out of house and home, this will come in handy."

Ron was unable to deny his mother's claims since his hand was already moving towards the jar after Molly's first sentence. He simply retracted it and sat pouting for a few moments while everyone else, mainly his brothers, laughed.

Shortly after the meal, Harry was grabbed again by the arms. The twins dragged him inside and threw him at least somewhat gently into the armchair normally used by Mr. Weasley.

"We know what you're up to," George said.

"And we want in," Fred finished.

"What?" Harry asked, still somewhat confused as to why he was being dragged into the living room like a criminal.

"Your Order,"

"We want in."

"Aren't you two in the Order of the Phoenix? Scrimgeour's watching it, you know," Harry said.

"Nope," George said proudly.

"Mum wouldn't let us join," Fred said.

"If only she knew-"

"-But thankfully she didn't-"

"-that it would allow us to join _your_ Order instead."

Harry sighed and sat back into the chair. "Alright guys, you're in. I know I can trust you to do whatever I tell you, right?"

They both nodded eagerly.

"Right, well there's a lot of information you'll need to learn, but first you'll need to know Occlumency. I've got some books on it that I can send to you guys after we set up the Headquarters tomorrow morning. Other than that, you guys can be our eyes and ears in Diagon Alley. That seems to be a hot spot for Death Eater activity right now," Harry said, counting each point off with his fingers.

"Consider it done," Fred said, bowing.

"Oh great Leader," George finished, doing an equally silly bow.

Harry shook his head, wondering what he had gotten himself into. "You guys said you had something to tell me about the pictures you gave me?"

"Ah yes," George said.

"Quite a hard bit of work went into those," Fred continued.

"It's a shame-"

"-a big shame-"

"-That all of the mirrors were destroyed after sending the pictures," George explained.

Harry was confused, so Fred elaborated.

"They worked much like those mirrors Sirius had."

"We placed a small one in the boxes we sent Snape and the others and kept the other one back at the shop."

"When Snape opened the box, the transmitter mirrors activated and sent back to the ones we had set up in the shop. When they caught the image we wanted, it just froze. A simple transferring spell at we got the images on to film, which we developed like normal."

"Simple, really."

"Unfortunately…"

"They destroyed all the transmitters."

"We have to start making and charming some more-"

"-It should only take a week-"

"-Maybe less."

"That's bloody well brilliant, guys," Harry said, amazed. "Those could be great for surveillance. If they didn't know they were being observed, we could send packages to other Death Eaters and see their surroundings…" his mind raced with possibilities.

"Ah, George. Our finest our-"

"-Our fearless leader-"

"-Giving us praise-"

"-Be still my heart-"

The twins laughed and both Disapparated with soft pops, leaving Harry alone and still planning on which Death Eaters he'd like to keep tabs on.

It wasn't much later that the rest of his Order members came in, saying that they wanted to get to bed early so that leave early in the morning. Since many more people were staying at the Burrow for the night, they needed to pair in rooms again.

Ron didn't dare mention that he would like to stay with Hermione in front of his mother, so Harry, Neville and him ended up staying in the same room like at Hogwarts. Hermione and Ginny went off into Ginny's room, discussing how she and Harry had made up. This left Luna and Sarah to stay together, leaving Harry to wonder just how much sleep the two of them would actually get.

Harry suspected that Sarah was the first person who actually held lengthy conversations with Luna, other than her parents. As he settled down into one of the two extra beds, he noticed that Ron was already snoring away. He was tempted to use Charlie's Dragon horn, but he wasn't sure just how loud it would be, so he decided to save it for another night.

"Is he always like that?" Neville asked sleepily.

"I think so, but I'm pretty sure the curtains around our Hogwarts beds have silencing charms attached," Harry replied as he wrapped his pillow around the back of his head to cover his ears.

"I'm not sure how we're going to get any sleep…" Neville said, trying the same pillow tactic as Harry was.

"I know… oh forget it," Harry said as he sat up and fired a silencing charm at Ron's body. Immediately the snoring stopped. Yawning, Harry lay back on his bed. "Good night, Neville," he said as he drifted off to sleep.

"'Night, Harry," Neville replied, stifling his own yawn.

Harry was woken up early the next morning by Ron frantically shaking him and pointing at his mouth. Laughing, Harry reversed the charm as Ron muttered about everyone getting up and having breakfast.

They ate quickly and quite soon were faced with a rather painful good bye. Luna and her father shared a few choice words between each other, while Neville's Grandmother merely stated over and over again how proud she was of the boy.

The hardest separation was clearly that of Ron, Ginny and Molly. Mrs. Weasley seemed to be unable to let them go without continually running back to them and crushing them in hugs or plastering their faces with kisses.

"Blimey, mum," Ron said after the third sequence of this event as he pulled away from her. "It's not like we're never going to see each other again. You know we can always use Floo Powder and Apparate to the Burrow, right?"

Mrs. Weasley reddened at the comment. "I guess that must have slipped my mind," she said softly as she headed back to where Arthur was standing.

Harry produced a Portkey that Tonks had given him last night, which would take them to the front walk of their Headquarters. With their trunks shrunk and in their pockets, the seven of them all grabbed a hold of Harry's copy of _How to please your Witch_. Luckily Tonks had taken some pity on him and charmed the book so that only Harry and she could view the cover and contents of the book. Still, it did little to help Harry's embarrassment.

The jerk from his navel pulled him into the spinning vortex and deposited him on a grassy walkway in front of a rather large townhouse. He managed to keep his balance this time, which made him feel rather good. _At least that's a good sign_, he told himself as he and the other six people admired it from the outside.

"Well, let's go in then, shall we? No reason to stand out here all day," Ron said as he headed up the walkway. The rest of the group followed him.

As Harry reached the long front porch, there was a flash of red light, causing all them to draw their wands.

To be continued…


	7. Home is where the Heart is

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 7 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris for being a superb beta and Jane for the summary.

**A/N**: Nope. I didn't forget to add anything in about Ginny's gift. You'll find out what she got Harry sometime soon.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 7: **

**Home is where the Heart is**

_"- yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often. Best to say nothing at all, my dear man."_-Albus Dumbledore, Chapter 2, HBP

Harry sighed in relief as the red and gold bird flapped its wings idly to keep itself hovering.

"Hello, Fawkes," he said softly as he slipped his wand back into the holster. "What are you doing here?"

The phoenix trilled a happy tune as it dropped the bundle it was carrying at Harry's feet. With its mission complete, it flew up and perched itself on the porch's roof.

Slowly picking up the bundle of leather, he unrolled it to find a scabbard that was studded with rubies and topazes. Sliding the sword out of the sheath, Harry wasn't surprised to find Godric Gryffindor's sword.

"Didn't Fawkes… leave at Dumbledore's funeral?" Neville asked as he eyed the bird with interest.

"Phoenixes live a long time. I doubt he would just pass away just because of Dumbledore…" Hermione said thoughtfully as she admired the phoenix. "I wonder if he's just here to deliver the sword."

"Why else would he be here?" Ron asked.

"Because, _Ron_," Ginny said as she rolled her eyes. "A phoenix lives a really long time. I doubt it could just die because it wants to."

Ron flushed red and turned to his sister. "I know that," Ron spat back.

"Maybe he's come to stay with Harry?" Neville suggested. "Phoenixes usually have partners."

The morning sun began to slowly creep over small town to the east, reminding them that they had a lot to do today.

"Let's just get settled in here first before that company comes with all of the furniture and appliances we ordered," Harry said as he started towards the house with the sword in one hand and the sheath in the other.

"Does anyone else think that he'll attract Sword Fairies if he keeps walking around like that?" Luna asked suddenly.

"No," Hermione said flatly as she followed Harry up the walkway.

Not bothering with the keys in his trunk, Harry simply pulled out his wand and muttered "_Alohomora_." The locked clicked up and he pushed the door inward, causing a loud creaking sound to resonate throughout the partially bare house. "Add that to the 'to do' list," Harry said over his shoulder.

Before he could set foot into the large house, Fawkes took off from his perch above them and landed on Harry's shoulder. He continued to sing a quiet version of Phoenix Song.

"I guess that settles that," Hermione said as she watched the flaming bird rest on Harry's shoulder.

"We'll discuss this later," Harry said as he made his way into the front hallway.

The first thing anyone had noticed was that the house really could have used a painting. The outside had a fading white paint that was chipping in several locations over the wooden exterior. There was some forest green paint around the large window trims that was in about the same shape is the overall paint condition.

The house was full of large windows that were, quite surprisingly, sparkling clean. Harry and a few others suspected that this was an effort on Mr. Maison's part to make the house look as attractive as possible. Though unknown to him, Harry and the others would be able to make the house look brand new in a few short hours with the aid of magic.

The large porch traveled all the way around the uniquely shaped house and had an overhanging roof specifically for it. Near the front door was a small two-seater swing that hung from the porch's roof by chains, though the swing itself looked as if it had seen better days.

It was three stories in all, plus a small little tower that looked quite a bit like a steeple, though Harry wasn't sure of its actual purpose. The roof itself was tiered, so that from the base of the top floor, the shingles slanted downwards so that the water could cascade over the edge and on to the roof of the next floor. It finally stopped when on the porch's roof there was a gutter system which directed the water to a simple wooden water barrel around the back of the house. While the roof looked quite secure and the shingles appeared to relatively new, Harry was planning on performing more than one water resistance charm on the them to prevent any water damage.

As they stepped inside, they were blown away by large entrance hall. It was at least twenty feet wide with a black and white checkerboard tile pattern on the floor. There was a large closet with a sliding door on the right side that looked like it could hold an entire wardrobe. The hall itself narrowed down to a regular sized hallway straight through to the back of the house, where there was a staircase against the back wall.

The stairs began facing towards the front door in the far right corner of the hallway and, after five steps, turned upwards to the left as the case pressed against the back wall. From then on it was up a few more stairs before a final twist back towards the front of the house.

Off to the left was a large open entranceway into the kitchen that looked like it had, at one time, been two rather large double doors that had since been removed. From what Harry could see, the checkerboard tile pattern continued into the enormous kitchen. There were some old appliances that were left in the house, but Harry knew these would only be there temporarily until the Department store's truck arrived and delivered all of the furniture and appliances that he and Hermione had ordered.

There was a large island in the middle of the kitchen that was big enough for all seven of them to eat breakfast at the same time if they so chose. In addition to the overly large island in the middle of the room, there was an abundance of counter space around the stove and other appliances.

"You just ate!" exclaimed Hermione as she caught a sight of Ron's somewhat glazed expression as the redhead was looking into the kitchen.

Harry separated from most of the group as Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna explored the kitchens and left side of the ground floor while he, Sarah and Ginny entered through a regular wooden door on the right side of the entrance hall.

Harry's group walked directly in to what would become the house's living room. There was already an old, rather disgusting looking couch still in the room facing the fireplace. There was a white marble mantle around the fire place and a large, old picture of the Queen above it. The room was large enough so that when all the furniture arrived and was arranged it would make an excellent meeting room.

"This will look quite a bit cozier with some decent furniture," observed Ginny as she picked away at the dying couch. The some of the fabric simply fell apart in her hands.

"Why would they leave that here?" Sarah asked as she looked unhappily at the sofa. "I thought they were supposed to make it look nice for us."

All Harry could do was shrug as he turned to the young girl. "I'm not sure, but at least we won't have to wait too much longer for our new things to arrive," he said as he checked the watch he had received from Bill. It was only 7:30 and the movers weren't due until 8:30, which would give them time to scout the whole house and choose their rooms.

Harry headed over to the back of the living room and through the opening that was once again without a door. He stood in silence as his eyes widened. He was staring out over a massive, old ballroom. The hardwood floor, though it was quite worn down, was still in good shape though it could have used a polishing. He had known there was a ballroom in the house, but he had expected something a lot smaller. He thought he would have to magically enlarge a room for them to practice dueling in for the colder months when the temperatures dropped considerably. Nothing could have prepared him for seeing the large dance floor that took up a considerable portion of the ground floor's eastern half.

"Wow," Ginny breathed as she came up behind Harry and slipped her hand into his. "I guess you'll have no excuse for not learning how to dance, Mr. Potter," she said with a grin.

Harry reddened slightly as he gave her hand a squeeze. "If only someone would teach me."

"Maybe later," Ginny said happily as she pulled Harry across the large dance floor towards the far door, which led to the stairs. "We have a lot more to explore."

Sarah followed the two of them back into the hallway just in time to see Ron, Hermione and the others come out of what looked to be a decent sized formal dining room. Ron looked slightly pale.

"What on earth has gotten into you?" Harry asked his best friend.

Ron gulped. "Hermione says that now there's no excuse for us not having some romantic dinners," he explained while looking quite agitated.

Harry bit back his laughed as he gestured behind him. "Unfortunately it looks like we'll be getting formal dance lessons as well while we're not training or stopping Death Eaters."

"Is that-" Hermione said as she dashed across the hall to look into the ballroom. "I thought it would be smaller than this," she said in awe.

"That's what I thought, too," Harry replied with a nod as he looked back over his shoulder. "Though I'm not sure how much time we'll have for dancing…"

There was a growl from his side as Ginny glared back up at him. "Don't even think of using that as an excuse. You'll be learning to dance and that's that. If you can spend the time learning all these complex spells and other ways to save the world you can spend a few evenings learn to dance."

Harry dropped her hand and held both of his up in defense. "Now now, I didn't say I didn't want to learn-" he looked back at Neville and Ron for support, but Ron was still watching Hermione nervously and Neville looked to be stifling silent laughter.

"Anyways I think I'll go look around the back a bit," Ginny said as she opened up the back door. "It looks like it goes on forever," she said nodding towards the rolling hills.

"Alright, but be sure to back soon so you can get your choice of rooms," Harry whispered to her as Ron, Hermione and Neville entered the ballroom.

After he searched the rest of the hallway and found a bathroom, a large broom closet and the stairs leading to the basement, Harry and Sarah ascended the staircase up to the second floor.

This floor was much smaller and less grand than the ground floor. There was a typical straight hallway with six doors leading off of it and another staircase leading up right beside where they had just come up.

Harry headed to the first room on the left to discover the floor's bathroom. It was quite a bit smaller than the one of the ground floor, though, but still had a shower, bathtub that seemed to be rather well kept, sink and counter space as well as the regular items you would expected to find in the bathroom.

"I wonder why everything is so grand on the first floor," Harry said aloud.

"Because when people threw parties when this house was built they only had guests on the main floor. It would make a good impression. Mum and Dad used to take me to some when I was younger," Luna said sadly.

Despite feeling uncomfortable with Luna's depressed tone, Harry found it hard to picture Luna at some formal party.

A further search of the floor showed that one of the other doors was simply a storage closet for linens, or so Harry assumed judging by the shelves. There was a similar closet that Aunt Petunia forbid to look in while he lived on Privet Drive for fear that he would somehow dirty her clean linens.

The other rooms were simple regular sized bedrooms that were about the size of Dudley's in the Dursley household. Each of them had their own closet as well as an indented area that included some shelves for displaying collections or whatever else the occupant wanted out and easily accessible.

At the end of the hall was a slightly enlarged area that looked like a simple sitting area, but neither Harry, Luna or Sarah were sure of it's purpose. It looked like a simple rest area where people could sit and talk if for whatever reason they didn't want to join the rest of the people in the living room.

Harry and Sarah shrugged to each other as Luna studied the area as if she was watching something mildly amusing. All three of them turned and decided to head up to the final floor.

The third floor was easily the smallest floor, as one could easily predict from looking at the house from the outside. There were only two smaller bedrooms here, a simple bathroom much like the one on the second floor. Down at the end of the hallway, which was quite short, there was a set of double doors.

"What's down here?" Harry asked as he pushed open the doors.

"Your bedroom, I think," Sarah replied as she came up beside him and looked into the large bedroom, completed with an old king sized bed, plenty of storage space in a walk-in closet and a private, albeit small, bathroom.

"My bedroom?" Harry asked in surprise. "This place is huge-"

"It's designed for you and your chosen mate," Luna explained with her typical hint of amusement. "That would explain the large bed at least, though it must be filled with Trivels…"

Harry reddened, "Alright, alright, I'll take the room, but I don't need any talk of need a 'mate', got it?" he said glaring at Luna. The blonde girl simply gave him a dazed look without blinking.

He sighed and shook his head slightly. "Why don't you two take the rooms up here and I'll take the master bedroom in case I ever need a mate, as Luna so kindly put it."

"I was just explaining why it was so large," Luna said, smiling serenely. "I think I'll stay on the second floor. I'm sure Ginny will have much more use of a close room than I will." While her comment was still sinking slowly into Harry's mind, she vanished down the stairs towards the second floor.

Sighing again, Harry headed over to the ladder. "Want to see where this leads?" he asked Sarah, hoping to get his mind off of sharing a room with Ginny, or, more importantly, a bed as Luna had suggested.

The younger girl nodded so they both ascended the ladder and entered a small, albeit tall, room through a trapdoor in the ground. The room had very little wall space and a lot of windows that appeared to open by folding up nearly one hundred and eighty degrees straight up.

"What's this room for?" Sarah asked him as she squinted and looked out the eastern window over the town. The sun had fully risen now, causing the top room in the house to become full of bright light.

"I think it's a room for stargazing," Harry replied as he spied an old folded up tripod leaning in the corner of the exceedingly compact room. He frowned as he looked over the back part of the property. "Though I think we'd have better luck out back, honestly. I can't really see the purpose of using this as a stargazing room when you can't even see directly overhead."

"Maybe for the winter when the ground gets covered in snow," Sarah said thoughtfully as she looked out to the backyard and watched Ginny head back towards the house.

Harry nodded since it made sense. "We can take our telescopes out back tonight, if you want. You can show me how much more you know about Astronomy than I do," Harry said with a fond smile.

Sarah looked rather confused. "Why would I know more about it than you? You'd be in your last year if you were going."

Smiling slightly, Harry gave a slightly cheeky grin. "I never really paid too much attention in Astronomy. I'm surprised I even passed my OWL as there was a slight distraction during the test," he explained. His grin changed to a slight frown as he remembered both McGonagall and Hagrid being attacked on the night of his Astronomy exam. He grabbed the tripod and set it up near one of the windows to see if it still stood correctly.

"Oh," Sarah said while trying to read his facial expression. She smiled after a few moments. "Well I'd love to go stargazing. I miss it already," she said as she used a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight while looking towards the east again.

"Alright then," Harry said as he opened the trapdoor again. "Make sure I don't forget, though, since I'll have a lot on my mind tonight."

"I won't," the girl responded with a smile. "I have a good memory."

Harry laughed, "I am quite sure you do," he said before he was interrupted by another flash of fire. Yelling and dodging backwards, he crashed into one of the corners painfully as Fawkes appeared in the room. The phoenix had left his shoulder when he began to search the house.

"Fawkes, you're going to be the death of me if you keep that up," Harry said as he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

The red and gold bird simply trilled happily as it sat on the tripod Harry had set up a moment before. It seemed to look Harry in the eye as it continued to sing.

He noticed that Sarah was looking at the phoenix hesitantly. "Go on. You can touch him. He's quite warm and friendly," he said reassuringly.

Sarah moved her hand cautiously towards the phoenix, petting Fawkes' back. The phoenix trilled happily, so she continued, smiling. "He's pretty warm," she commented idly.

"Well, he's associated with fire, mainly. You noticed how he travels around," Harry explained as he watched the scene. "Actually, Fawkes, you gave me another idea that should have been obvious. This whole area would be perfect for Hedwig and Pig," he said as he looked around the small room. Harry and his friends had left all their pets and companions at the Burrow until they had gotten everything organized and under control. They certainly didn't need Crookshanks running underfoot or Pig flying around distracting them continually.

The phoenix continued to sing happily for a few moments before taking off again and flashing away in another bright ball of bright fire.

"Where did he go?" Sarah asked, shocked that he had left suddenly.

"I'm not sure. Perhaps he didn't come to one of us as a partner after all. Sometimes he was in Dumbledore's office and others he wasn't. Maybe he just does whatever phoenixes do and comes when he's needed? I really don't know," Harry said as he scratched his head.

The sound of voices came from through the open trapdoor, reminding Harry that there was much more that needed to be done. "I guess we better head down and see what they're talking about. I thought they could be mature enough to sort out rooms on their own, but maybe not," Harry told Sarah with a slight grin.

As it turned out, Ron, Hermione and Neville were all flipping galleons to decide who got one room since one of them was slightly larger than the others. Luna merely was watching the proceedings, but told Sarah in a hushed whisper that she had already taken the room the others were arguing over and unpacked some of her belongings.

"And here I thought I was taking a mature group of adults to save the Wizarding world," Harry commented as he rolled his eyes from the base of the staircase.

"There wouldn't be a problem if Ron hadn't bragged about his room being the largest," Hermione said, shaking her head in frustration as her galleon flip cost her chances at getting it. "I can't just let him have what he wants, now can I?" she explained with a mischievous grin.

"Aha!" cried Ron in triumph as Neville growled unhappily and put his galleon back in his pocket.

"If you boys are quite done, the furniture and appliances will be here soon," Harry said.

"Don't blame me," Neville said, grinning. "You know how fun it is to bug him. If I had gotten that room…"

Harry shook his head again slight in amazement. This was a different side of Neville than Harry had seen. This Neville seemed genuinely happy, without his usual nervousness or shyness. Harry wasn't sure whether this was to do with Neville's grandmother's support of his actions or what, but he was glad for the change.

* * *

Shortly after all the rooms were sorted out and the shock had worn off of Ron's face when he realized Luna had already stolen the room he had been trying to win with galleon flips, the group met down in the entrance hall.

"Alright, Sarah and I are going to explore the town a bit and meet some people. After all, we're going to be doing a lot of our grocery shopping there. We'll have to show them we live around the area so they don't start wondering," Harry explained. "The movers should be here shortly, so some of us have to stay here. I know Hermione wants first dibs on some of the items so I'd assume she's stay…" he trailed off and looked at the bushy haired witch.

Hermione reddened slightly and nodded. "We'll just have the movers leave the stuff outside. Once they leave we can shrink it and just carry the items in easily. Then we can enlarge them in their correct locations. It'll be a lot easier than having the movers here a long period of time or trying to levitate the things ourselves."

"It's decided then. I'll cast Fidelius and the muggle repellent charms once the movers leave after I get back from the village. We need groceries anyways," Harry said as he glanced into the kitchen. The group had brought enough food for a few meals, but mainly it was just snacks and nothing that had to be refrigerated.

One of the main problems Harry and Hermione had realized they had was electricity. They could easily have it supplied by the normal muggle methods, but with the house under Fidelius along with muggle repellent charms, the electric company would surely cut it off if they didn't even think the house existed. Luckily, by chance, Harry had stumbled across a charm that would enchant a simple muggle generator into running without fuel. The generator simply worked off the magical energy poured into it by the charm, which had to be applied monthly otherwise it would wear off. The spell was considered draining, but easily worth it.

"I'll come with you too," Ginny said, snapping Harry back to reality.

A few minutes later Harry was walking down the street towards the small town with both his hands occupied. He was holding Sarah's hand with his left hand, slowly swaying back and forth. In his right hand he was holding Ginny's hands, their fingers slid happily between each other's fingers.

The morning was slowly starting to get warm as the sun continued to rise. It was no longer directly in their faces as they walked east, but it was still a bright and clear morning. A gentle breeze was blowing into their faces, but for the first time in a while Harry felt entirely content.

The town itself was quite small and had only around three hundred citizens. There was a small town hall, a church, a school and a few commercial stores. Only a single grocery store was in the town, which severely limited their choices.

Harry led the girls down the main street, receiving some odd looks from a few elderly people that they happened to pass. Harry wasn't sure whether this was because they were strangers in the probably close community, or whether he seemed to be a girl his age and a girl a few years younger. Neither of the girls looked like him in anyway, so he didn't really blame them for wondering what was going on.

They entered the small grocery store and proceeded to load up quite a few baskets of many different types of food. When they brought it to the cashier, a young girl that looked like she was probably still in high school and not quite enjoying having to work early in the morning, her eyes widened in surprise. After all, three teenagers seemed to be buying enough to feed a large household for a few weeks at least.

Ginny watched him oddly as he pulled out his Gringotts' money back and proceeded to pull out a large sum of British Pound notes and hand them to the startled cashier. "What?" she whispered, her eyes indicating the bag.

As the cashier ran the money through the cash register, Harry turned back to Ginny and Sarah. "I'll explain later," he mouthed as the cashier began to back the large amount of groceries.

They exited the store carrying quite a few heavy bags of groceries. When they were out of sight, Harry quickly pulled out his wand and charmed the bags so they would levitate at a regular height. That way the three of them could simply pretend to carry the bags for the fifteen minute walk back to the house.

This, however, earned them more bewildered looks from the townspeople as three people seemingly carried an immense weight without suffering any effects from it. Harry sighed and realized he'd have to think this through better next time or he'd end up having to perform memory charms because of his own foolishness.

When the group strolled back up closer to the house, they saw a large moving truck parked on the side of the road. A bunch of large men were lifting out numerous mattresses, box springs, cabinets and sofas. On the lawn beside Hermione and Ron, who appeared to be directing everyone, where the kitchen appliances and the washing machine and dryer combo that Hermione had found for a rather good bargain.

"They're almost done," Hermione informed Harry as he and the others moved past her towards the house with the groceries. After depositing them on the kitchen's massive island, they returned outside.

"I think they're wondering why we don't want them to move this stuff inside, though," Ron added as he watched the movers unload the last of the bed frames from the truck.

"Well, I would be too if I didn't know any better," Harry replied as he examined the fridge. _Definitely going to need an enlargement charm,_ he thought as he thought of how many groceries they were going to have to store in the stainless steel appliance. The stove they had purchased, on the other hand, would not need to be enlarged. It sported ten burners and an oversized oven. The width was easily that of two regular stoves and Harry was wondering whether or not Hermione had the darn thing built in a custom design since he had never seen something so large in his life.

"It's all done, Miss," the lead mover informed Hermione. He took a step back towards the large truck, but stopped and turned back hesitantly. "Now… now you're sure you don't want help moving all of this inside?" he finished with a wave of his arm to gesture to the large amount of heavy furniture items they had.

Hermione smiled sweetly. "Oh we're quite fine. We have a bunch more friends with us that are inside at the moment. Thanks for the offer though."

The mover sized Hermione up skeptically before shrugging and heading back to the truck. A few minutes later the truck was off in the distance and everyone present looked at Harry expectantly.

"Here goes nothing," he said as some butterflies leapt into his stomach. Though his sole test on the Dursley's kitchen proved easily successful, this was the one that really mattered. He had also never tested the muggle repellent wards and anti-apparation ones he was going to put on the house as well. He figured the latter would be quite a bit safer, even if it was a slight inconvenience for traveling outbound.

Harry waited until Neville and Luna had exited the house before closing his eyes and preparing himself to cast the Fidelius Charm. He wasn't sure what would happen if anyone was inside the house when it was cast and he certainly didn't want to find out the hard way.

Concentrating on the house and himself, Harry felt a similar sensation course though his veins. Opening his eyes slowly, he saw that everyone else was eyeing the house warily. "What? Did it not work?" he asked them.

"That was _wicked_," Ron said, sounding completely amazed. "It just sucked itself into a black hole or something."

"So you see nothing at all?" Harry asked.

Sarah shook her head. "It's completely gone."

Harry grinned and went around to each of his friends in turn and whispered the location of their headquarters in their ear. One by one they all took a step backwards as the house came spiraling back into view. Next, he closed his eyes in concentration again as he point his wand at house.

With a few lengthy incantations, the tip of his wand glowed blue and fired a single jet of light, causing the house to glow for a few moments. He opened his eyes and nodded towards his friends. "I'd assume that whenever a muggle gets near here, he or she will remember they have something more important to be doing. Of course I couldn't extend it too far otherwise it would affect people who are driving down the road…"

"And the anti-apparation ward?" Neville prompted him.

Harry took a breath and closed his eyes in concentration again. This time after his incantation a golden net erupted from his wand and grew rapidly in size until it hovered over the entire house. With the final words of the spell, the web condensed and flung itself downwards, covering itself in what looked like a pulsating golden spider web. As Harry opened his eyes, the web began to fade away. He turned to his friends again. "Well, if Voldemort ever gets the location, somehow, at least he can't Apparate directly into our rooms…" he trailed off, not really wanting to complete the thought.

The others gave him looks of grim determination. Harry took a step forward and collapsed to one knee, breathing heavily. As everyone rushed towards him, he held out a hand. "I'm fine. I'm just a little exhausted. Those wards take a lot out of you…" he said, though he was trembling slightly.

"Who are you trying to fool?" Ginny demanded with an edge in her voice. "You go inside and relax while we take care of this furniture," she continued as helped Harry get to his feet.

"Yeah, mate," Ron said with a look of concern on his face. "We can't have you overexerting yourself. You're still the best duelist and the only one we trust to lead us." The others voiced their agreement readily and Harry realized he had no choice.

Sighing, Harry moved his arm around Sarah's shoulders as the young girl came forward to take over for Ginny. He allowed himself to be lead into the house while he watched the other five members of the Order of Light shrink down the numerous pieces of furniture that littered their front lawn.

Harry spent the rest of the afternoon under the watchful eye of Sarah, who was under strict orders from Ginny not to let him exert himself in any way. He was frustrated, but understood their concern and he would have been tempted to do some things if it weren't for Sarah.

The day seemed to pass fairly quickly as everything was set up in the correct location and wallpaper was put up to people's specifications. Harry's room was left blank, which irked a few people, but he explained that he simply didn't know what he wanted yet.

Their first dinner at headquarters was a simple, yet satisfying affair. The house looked quite livable now with all its new paint, wallpaper and furniture. Harry could actually relax and know that he was, at last, free of the Dursleys forever, or their house at the very least. Where the Dursleys had gone, Harry still didn't know, but his mind wasn't on them. It was on Dudley and what Remus had told him. He sighed and tried not to think about it as he headed outside carrying his telescope under his arm.

The evening had turned to dusk with the conclusion of the very first meeting of the full Order of Light's inner circle. Neville, Ginny and Luna had be more than impressed by the cloaks and the Gringotts' money bags that Harry had given them.

The one traditional thing that Harry insisted on was that they all take a photograph like the original Order of Phoenix had done during the first war. Within minutes everyone was lined up in a pose similar and Hermione's camera ticked off the final few seconds before the timer went off and the flash went off.

Luna had some Wizarding photography equipment in her trunk that she stated she had to develop any pictures of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks or other elusive beasts she came into contact with. It took a short time, but Luna soon produced a typical moving photograph showing the six of them wearing their white cloaks as well as Sarah laughing and pointing at things outside of the photograph. When Harry looked at it, the Harry in the photograph gave him a double handed thumbs up.

Hermione had finally found a use for the disgusting old couch that had previously inhabited the living room where they now sat. She had transfigured the couch into a perfect picture frame for the photograph which now sat on the mantle facing them at each meeting.

"Come on! The stars are almost out!" Sarah urged him excitedly. The young girl already had her telescope set up on a tripod and pointed up to where the moon was already visible.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Harry said with a slight sigh. Despite barely being seventeen he was already feeling old and tired when he spent time with Sarah.

Harry spent the next few hours explaining everything he knew about Astronomy to Sarah, who seemed to have an insatiable hunger for knowledge. He definitely did not argue with the Sorting Hat's house placement.

It was getting late when Harry heard Sarah sniff behind him. Turning around, he saw tears reflecting off of Sarah's cheek glistening in the moonlight. "What's wrong?" he asked, moving over to her.

"I don't want you to die," she sniffled, "But you might if you have to keep fighting."

Harry pulled the girl into a hug. "I don't want to die either, obviously, but I can't just not fight. Voldemort's done too many evil things for me to step down, and even if I wasn't right in the middle of it I'd do it anyways."

Sarah nodded, "I know and I don't want you to just stop fighting, but I don't want to lose you too…"

"Well," Harry began as pulled out of the hug and held her at arms length so he could look her in the eye. "I don't have any plans to die," he said with a sad smile. "This is why we're going to train really hard to make sure people like Bellatrix Lestrange can't hurt us easily."

"I don't want to sound selfish, but… where would I go if you died?" she asked, wiping her own tears from her face.

"It's best not to think like that. If that happens I'm sure you're welcome to stay here as long as you want or go wherever you want to. However, don't think you're getting rid of me that easy," Harry said with a slight grin.

Sarah traced Harry's cut scar with her finger. "I hope I can't," she said before trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn.

"When I see her next I'll make sure to give her a scar back," Harry said as he caught the younger girl yawning. "Now then, what kind of guardian would I be if I let you stay up too late when you're clearly tired?" He laughed as Sarah glared at him. "Hey, I know you always pick when you go to bed, but I've been waiting for a time to say that."

The younger girl sighed and rolled her eyes while she began dismantling her telescope. "Somehow it doesn't feel too wrong, either," she commented, leaving Harry at a loss for words.

Harry walked Sarah up to her room on the third floor. "Good night, Sarah," he said, ruffling her hair slightly. He had begun to do this more often since she pretended it annoyed her, but Harry knew that it didn't bother her in the slightest except for perhaps the static he built up.

"Good night…d…" she stared at him for a second before simply entering the room and closing the door awkwardly.

Harry blinked for a few moments before heading back down to the living room. Everyone else had apparently turned in early due to the sheer number of things they accomplished that day. He dropped himself into one of the armchairs that they had purchased and simply gazed at the picture on the mantle.

He didn't have long to reflect before he was attacked from the side.

"Staying up late?" Ginny asked as she sat on the side of the armchair.

Harry shrugged. "You know me. If this was Hogwarts I'd be up late doing some essay or something."

Ginny smiled and slid into his lap. She shifted her body so that her legs were hanging over the arm of the chair. "And going for father of the year, I see."

"Father of the year?" he asked, blinking.

The redhead giggled in his lap and smiled. "I was up in that little owlery we have. I heard your conversation when you put her to bed."

"I didn't put her to bed," Harry protested. "I just thought that she was tired and trying to stay up because I was."

Ginny shifted in his lap deliberately. "Exactly. I was entirely wrong about you," she said. "I figured you were in over your head, but you really do care for her."

"She's not the only one, though," Harry replied nervously. Ginny was making him quite nervous with her movements.

Catching his nervous reaction, the redhead grinned and leaned down to kiss him on the lips. "Poor Harry, am I bothering you?"

"Somewhat," Harry said as his cheeks turned pink. "But I still like you up close to me." He pulled her close for another kiss, which Ginny participated eagerly in. As the kiss lengthened, he felt Ginny's hands in his hair.

"And everyone wonders why it's so messy," he commented after they had both come up for air.

Ginny smiled. "You're forgetting that it was always like that, Mr. Potter. The bad boy image with none of the bad boy personality… no wonder you're to die for," she said leaned in for another kiss.

"Depends who you ask," Harry said sheepishly as Ginny simply leaned up against him.

"The only opinion that matters is mine, in this case," she replied as she snuggled up against him.

Harry put his arm around her and pulled her close. "Not even mine?"

"Not when I'm judging you because you'll just say you're overrated in some fashion."

He acted mock wounded. "Me? Never."

"Yes, you" she said as she turned around to face him again and pointed a finger into his chest. "When will you accept that you're just as good as everyone says you are?"

Harry shrugged as best he could with Ginny lying basically on top of him. "Maybe when I finally defeat Voldemort and round up all his Death Eaters."

"Oh you do keep things simple, don't you?" Ginny replied with a smile. "Well, I think you're perfect the way you are right now."

Blushing, Harry gave her a warm smile and kissed the top of her head. "I'll take that, then." He tried to cover up a yawn, but failed. With Ginny acting as a warm blanket, he was finding it hard to stay awake.

"Do I have to send you to bed like you did to your daughter earlier or will you go willingly?" Ginny teased as she slowly crept two of her fingers up his chest, eventually putting two of them across his mouth. "Don't try to argue."

Harry stood up abruptly, causing Ginny to slip straight off his lap and on to the floor with a thud. "What?" he asked innocently, though he failed to hide a small grin that was creeping across his face. "You told me to go to bed and I didn't want to invoke your wrath by not obeying immediately."

She glared back up at him, though Harry could tell she was about to start laughing. "You'd better run, Potter."

"Or what?" Harry asked, laughing with her now.

"Or you can find out what it's like to take one of my Bat Bogey hexes."

Harry wisely started to run as Ginny chased him all the way up to his bedroom.

* * *

Harry entered the Department of Magical Transportation rather nervously. Today was August 5th and the day that Harry, Ron and Neville would be taking their Apparation tests. While they had practiced every day for an hour or so to make sure they could do it flawlessly, there was just something about the testing atmosphere which made Harry's stomach butterflies spread their wings.

"There's no way you'll fail, mate. Remember I only failed mine because of half an eyebrow," Ron said with a grin as the witch at the front desk directed them down a hallway to the waiting room.

"Yeah, but that's still a fail," Harry reminded him as he willed himself to calm down.

Neville opened the door and stopped abruptly causing both Harry and Ron to bump into him from behind.

"Watch it, Neville," Ron said before he noticed why the other Gryffindor had stopped.

"… you're running out of family members, aren't you? I suppose you don't have anyone to live with now," cackled Pansy Parkinson. Three people sniggered behind her as Pansy herself glared intensely at a very familiar girl with long brown hair.

"I live on my own now, thanks to you and your company," the girl shot back, though she was on the verge of tears.

"Awww, that's so sad," Pansy shot maliciously. "We're ever so sorry that your parents and aunt had to be fools."

"Well, well, if it isn't pug face and some of the other rejects," Ron said, glowering at Pansy.

The Slytherin girl jumped up and turned to face the trio of Gryffindor boys. Behind her, Zacharias Smith and Theodore Nott drew their wands. Daphne Greengrass noticeably stepped behind both boys. "Well if it isn't Potter and his faithful Weasel."

"Hello to you too, Pansy," Harry said sweetly. "I couldn't help but overhearing some of the things you were saying to Susan," he commented as he headed over to where Susan Bones was standing, completely ignoring the wands pointing at him. "You ok?" Harry asked the Hufflepuff girl.

Susan nodded, looking grateful for the backup. "I am now, I guess. I wasn't sure what they were going to do…"

"Actually that's a good question. What were you planning on doing here, in the heart of the Ministry of Magic," Harry asked, turning and glaring at Pansy.

"Making asses out of themselves it seems," Neville commented.

"Oh this is great," laughed Nott. "Longbottom trying to insult us. I've seen everything now. Tell me, are they actually letting you take this test? I suppose they want to give their clean up crews something to do."

"Actually I recall you splinching yourself quite a few times, Nott. Tell me, how is your dad in prison?" Neville shot back instantly with a determined fire in his eyes. Harry and Ron watched, eyes wide as Neville stood up for himself for one of the first times in his life.

"Why you-" Nott growled angrily as he drew his wand up above his head and began to thrust it forward.

Neville was clearly faster as he whipped his wand out from the holster on his arm. It was a move he had practiced many times over since receiving the holster from Harry. "_Expelliarmus_!" he cried.

Nott's wand left his grasp as he was launched backwards and hit the wall with a loud crash before slumping down to the ground.

"_Diffindo_!" shouted Zacharias Smith as soon as Neville had launched his spell at Nott.

"Protego," Ron said calmly as he stepped in front of Neville having successfully predicted what Smith was going to do. The hex hit the shield dead on, but Ron's shield held.

"Stop!" shrieked Pansy. "We're in the Ministry you fools!"

Everyone lowered their wands, though they eyed each other warily. Nott slowly got to his feet and staggered forward to retrieve his wand.

Shaking his head to clear it from the impact he had with the wall, he sneered at Neville. "Lucky shot, Longbottom."

"I guess you'd better try better next time then," Neville said with an icy glare as if daring the Slytherin to attack him again.

As Nott and Neville continued to argue, Susan slipped up beside Harry. "Is that actually Neville?" she asked, still wide eyed and watching the usually calm and quiet boy.

Harry nodded with a grin. "He's changed quite a bit over the past year, you see."

"But but… the holsters… the quick movements… what's going on?" Susan asked him directly.

Harry looked sideways at her and gave her another grin. He had always liked Susan since she had never treated him as a celebrity or anything more than he deserved. In fact, Susan had relatives that were also killed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters so he felt they could relate in a few ways. "If you stick around after the test, I'll tell you some things that might interest you."

The Hufflepuff girl raised an eyebrow but merely nodded as the examiner entered the room.

"Alright, listen up," the witch said strictly, entirely ignoring the fact that both Neville and Nott had been insulting each other as she entered. "The test is simple. You'll be Apparating around a large room. If you do this correctly, you move on to the final stage which is Apparating to a location in Diagon Alley. Any questions?"

There were none so Harry and the others were led out of the waiting room and down the hall to a room that was one of the largest Harry had ever seen. He figured that four Great Halls of Hogwarts could fit into the enormous room, which he was sure was magically expanded. The room was entirely white except for different colored X's on the ground in random locations.

"First, Apparate to the blue X…"

Around fifteen minutes later Harry successfully Apparated onto the bright yellow X. He quickly hurried aside as Theodore Nott popped in to existence behind him. Shortly after Zacharias and Ron appeared behind him.

"Now, the final test will be Apparating outside of the Leaky Cauldron," the instructor said with some degree of boredom in her voice. "In case you splinch yourselves emergency staff will be on hand. Bones, Susan. You're first."

Susan nervously closed her eyes to concentrate on her destination. Harry suspected that this was due to the accident she had when learning to Apparate at Hogwarts. From what he remembered, splinching looked quite painful.

There was a soft pop as Susan entirely disappeared from where she was standing. A moment later the examiner witch nodded. "Miss Bones has successfully Apparated. Miss Greengrass, you're next."

Daphne and Neville both disappeared and, according to the examiner, arrived successfully. Pansy swaggered forward next doing an excellent Draco Malfoy impression, complete with the smug grin. She closed her eyes and almost immediately disappeared.

However, the problem was that Pansy didn't entirely leave the room. Her ugly pug-like nose hung in the air for a few seconds before falling to the ground with her left hand and right foot.

Ron laughed while the examiner let out a deep sigh. "You'll have to wait a few moments for the emergency crew to put her back together before you may have your go, Mr. Potter."

A man wearing white robes quickly appeared next to Pansy's body parts and loaded them unceremoniously into a large sack that he was holding. He left as quickly as he had come.

"Ok, Mr. Potter. I believe they're done cleaning up after Miss Parkinson's rather humiliating attempt," the witch said with a yawn and waved him forward.

Harry stepped forward and threw a glance over his shoulder towards Ron. He wasn't sure that leaving Ron alone with both Nott and Zacharias was the best of ideas since the examination witch seemed to be about to fall asleep. Ron gave him a slight nod, making sure Harry noticed that his hand was ready to draw his wand if he needed.

Concentrating on the location he was instructed, he felt himself slide through a tube and land suddenly on his feet. Keeping his balance, Harry saw that he had successfully Apparated directly in front of brick wall that marked the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Congratulations, Mr. Potter. I believe you scored a full one hundred percent," a male voice behind he said.

Harry spun around to see a wizard with short black hair smiling rather weirdly, his eyes darting up to Harry's lightning bolt scar and back. "Uh… thank you," Harry replied, rather annoyed.

"You may want to move out of the way, though. I'd imagine Mr. Nott will be coming shortly," the wizard told him.

Sure enough Nott, Smith and Ron all Apparated successfully, marking the end of the examination. It appeared that only Pansy had failed since Susan, Neville and Daphne Greengrass were all waiting off to the side with the Ministry wizard that continually looked at his scar gleefully, much to Harry's annoyance.

The bored witch Apparated to their location next. "Those of you who have passed this examination, which is everyone here as Miss Parkinson is currently being de-splinched back in the Department of Magical Transportation, will receive a certain certificate by owl post sometime in the next week. Congratulations," she said unenthusiastically before popping back to her desk at the Ministry.

"Good bye, Mr. Potter," the black haired wizard said eagerly before popping away himself. This caused Ron to laugh until Harry cut him off with a glare.

Nott and Zacharias seemed quite happy that both Ministry officials had left, however. Both had drawn their wands and were point them at the Gryffindor trio and Susan. "Looks like no one is around to witness anything," Nott sneered.

"And you plan to take all four of us with just the two of you?" Harry asked as he glanced at Daphne Greengrass. The Slytherin girl, however, seemed to want no part in any fighting. "I thought Voldemort only wanted intelligent servants."

Both Zacharias and Nott flinched badly at the mention of Voldemort's name. "Don't speak his name," hissed Nott as he took a step forward, his wand a mere foot from Harry's chest. "Pansy isn't here to make us back down now, Potter."

"Actually I think she did that just to make your sorry asses weren't in jail," mused Ron slightly as he rolled his eyes.

"Shut it, Weasel," Nott said as he moved his wand to point at Ron instead.

There was a rumbling behind them, causing Zacharias and Nott to move their wands and point them at the opening wall instead. The wizard that Harry had seen talking to the Minister when he had burst in to adopt Sarah came strolling through the barrier, but abruptly stopped when he noticed two wands pointing at him.

"Is there a problem, boys?" he asked cautiously.

"Err, no," Nott said quickly, putting his wand back into his cloak. "You can't be too careful these days, though, right?" he added, sounding quite sincere.

"Especially not when your father is in Azkaban and you're a few steps away from Harry Potter. I quite agree," the wizard said with a small smile on his face.

Nott's face contorted in anger and it was only Zacharias forcefully pulling him backwards that snapped him out of his trance, keeping him from doing something stupid. "You're right," Nott growled before turning around. "Come on Daphne, let's go find Pansy," he said stalking away.

The young wizard looked to be in about his early twenties as he gave a somewhat childish grin. "I suggest you and your friends clear out of Diagon Alley, Mr. Potter. It isn't the safest place anymore as you can see." He promptly continued walking towards wherever his destination was.

"Who was _that_?" Ron asked, his mouth open.

"I'm not sure, honestly. I've never seen a member of the Ministry actually accuse some people like that flat out," Harry replied.

"Anyways," Susan said suddenly. "I believe you said you had something to tell me?" she asked eagerly.

"Oh, right," Harry said, entirely forgetting about that. "Ron, Neville, you guys can go back to the Headquarters if you want. I have some things to fill Susan in on." He noticed that Susan immediately perked up at the word 'headquarters'.

"If you'll be alright, mate," Ron said cautiously as he looked around the deserted street.

"We can go back to my apartment," Susan offered, eager to hear what exactly was going on.

"Alright, you heard Susan. I'll go fill her in and you two go tell everyone else what's going on so they don't worry," Harry said nodding. Both Neville and Ron eagerly drew their wands and Apparated away legally for the first time.

Harry turned to Susan. "So where are we going?"

"Muggle London," the girl replied. "It's not too far from here."

The two of them headed through the Leaky Cauldron, which was still devoid of people besides Tom the barkeep. It was a short four block walk to reach a small apartment complex where Susan Bones lived.

The apartment itself was quite small, but seeing as Susan lived alone now there wasn't a reason for a lot of space especially since Susan was still in school.

"Ok, Harry, spill it. You guys joined the Order of the Phoenix, didn't you?" Susan asked him intently. Susan's uncle, Edgar, had been a member of the original Order, but had been killed by Death Eaters.

"Err, not quite," Harry said nervously. "Ok, look. I'd love to have you join and help us, but I'm afraid I can't tell you everything right now. Not until you learn Occlumency at least. I also need to know if you're in or not, blatantly. If not I'll simply leave and you can carry on." He felt that he was slightly harsh in laying it out like this, but he knew that he had to be careful and make sure people were committed to the goal.

The Hufflepuff girl bit her lower lip slightly before nodding. "After seeing you lead the D.A. I know you know what you're doing. V-voldemort killed my uncle and parents and then auntie Amelia. I want to get back at him."

"Glad to have you aboard," Harry said with a sigh. "This is how things stand right now." Susan sat down on the edge of a small loveseat she had while Harry remained standing. "Last year, I learned some very, and I mean very, crucial information. There are only six people, well seven I suppose, that know of this information on our side. The Order of the Phoenix has been compromised by the Ministry and we're not sure what side they're on, if either side."

"So you… made your own group?" Susan asked tentatively.

"Yes, we did. We're going to do exactly what needs to be done. We have our own Headquarters, which is under the Fidelius Charm so that it'll be completely safe. We train quite a bit in dueling and spells as well as other techniques. We're just getting started, so there's a lot to do like research magical listening devices and such," Harry explained as he paced slightly.

"Count me in," Susan said firmly. "I'm doing nothing important right now anyways. I suppose you aren't going back to Hogwarts?"

Harry shook his head. "There are more important things that learning some useless potions right now. None of the other members are going back either, I believe."

Susan sighed. "I was thinking about not going either, but not for any important reason like that."

The Gryffindor merely raised an eyebrow at this while Susan squirmed slightly, regretting what she had just let slip out.

"My… my financial situation isn't so great. I'm still trying to find extra work, but I only have a part time muggle job," she admitted, biting her lip again. "I don't think I could financially help you guys at all, so I'm probably useless."

Harry laughed at this. "Susan, I've got more than enough money to finance more than one war against Voldemort. Headquarters is huge, and frankly probably safer than this. If you'd like you could move in there. Don't worry about the job either. The entire thing is on me, quite frankly. There are far more important things than money, such as stopping Voldemort before he destroys everything."

Susan shook her head in disbelief. "You know, in Hufflepuff we always heard how selfless you were, but of course we couldn't be sure how true it was…" she said, slightly embarrassed again.

"And so you shouldn't. The _Prophet_ did a great job making sure that no one really knew me," Harry said with a tone of disgust.

"I'm sorry for ever doubting you," Susan said as she glanced around the apartment. "Unfortunately I have this place for a month…"

Harry shook his head. "You're moving in as soon as possible. I'll pay for the month. I would bet anything the Death Eaters will be looking for you once Nott and Parkinson report back to whatever scum they talk to. It isn't safe here."

Susan nodded solemnly. "I suppose I should have expected that. It'll take me a few days to get everything in order otherwise it may just appear that I disappeared off the face of the planet. What little family I have left would worry." She caught Harry's look. "No, don't worry, I won't tell them exactly what I am doing, but just let them know I'll be fine."

"You'll be safe here for a few days?" Harry asked her seriously.

"I'm not sure, but I can legally Apparate now and I still know everything you taught me in fifth year," she reminded him.

He reddened slightly. "You make it sound as if I did everything. If you weren't willing to learn you wouldn't have gotten anything out of that. Besides, most of my encounters have been dumb luck anyways."

The Hufflepuff shook her heard. "Auntie Amelia used to tell me stories about how Uncle Edgar fought V-voldemort and got away with it, along with Neville's parents and yours too. I think you've survived more times now, though."

"Possibly, but I always have help at the last minute," Harry reminded her.

"That's not what Hermione says," Susan said with a glare.

"Speaking of Hermione, I guess I better get back to Headquarters before they think something went wrong. Sarah seems to be worried I'll be killed any day now. Sadly I think she might be right," he mused sadly.

"Harry Potter? Die? What's this? Honestly, Harry, if anyone lives through this war it'll be you. Congratulations on your adoption, though. You never cease to amaze people," Susan said with a slight grin.

"I get the picture already," Harry said as he rolled his eyes. "Send me an owl when you're ready and I'll come give you the location," he informed her as he took out his wand.

After a few moments he felt himself slide through a tube and land on his feet at the entrance to the Order of Light Headquarters. A large sign stuck in the grass just before the porch immediately caught his eye.

_Welcome to the Beacon_

He sighed and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Last night at the first Order meeting he had mentioned that this building and group of people was the only beacon of light that he actually trusted. His friends had immediately commented that he was being too dramatic with the statement, but apparently they had named the building after it. He knew that all Wizarding buildings and homes had names such as Malfoy Manor, the Burrow and so on, so he figured he wouldn't be able to argue it.

Harry was just about to set foot inside the building when an owl landed on his arm with a parchment tied to it. Unrolling it, Harry realized immediately that it was from Moody.

_Potter,_

_Tomorrow. Noon. Meet me you-know-where._

_Moody_

_I guess I'm going to Azkaban tomorrow_, Harry thought as the owl took off and he headed into the house. _And then I can finally get some answers from Lucius Malfoy_.

To be continued…


	8. Trials of Ice and Fire

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 8 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris for being a superb beta and Jane for the summary.

**A/N**: Ok so our main A/N and B/N will now be in review format!

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 8: **

**Trials of Ice and Fire**

_"Wow... look at that... he's not here now! So why not have a go? They might be able to find you a double cell in Azkaban with your loser of a husband!" - Harry Potter, HBP_

Severus Snape fought the urge to roll his eyes as he left the large room that served as a training hall. Theodore Nott, among others, was hard at work mastering the Dark Arts. This had been his reward, as well as the Cruciatus Curse, for reporting the situation that had occurred at the Department of Magical Transportation.

Snape heard the shouts and cries of pain as those facing some of the Dark Lord's more experienced duelers continued to be hit with some very nasty curses. The Dark Lord had been adamant about that. Hold nothing back, but definitely do not kill them or permanently injure them. The Dark Lord was correct in assuming that this would quicken their learning time. Though being around for only a little over a month, certain new recruits were showing absolutely remarkable progress.

While the former Potions Professor didn't like to admit it, Potter was an excellent duelist for his age. At least now some of the other students in his year would be able to stand up to him and his little band that followed him around. Well, that was the plan at least.

"I didn't realize _you_ would be going to this."

Snape spun around on his heel, his cloak billowing behind his back as he twirled expertly and fixed Bellatrix Lestrange with another of his patent trademarks: an unpleasant sneer. "I happen to be part of the Dark Lord's Inner Council as well, Lestrange," he said as his upper lip curled. Harry Potter would be able to inform anyone that Snape's lip curled only when he was speaking to someone he had an intense dislike for.

Bellatrix waved her hand dismissively and ignored Snape's scowling. "It's just that this particular meeting is discussing a very sensitive nature. It's something that can't risk being _leaked out_," she said, putting special emphasis on the last two words.

"Are you still on about that, Lestrange?" Snape spat bitterly. "I would have thought that even you would be able to see my loyalty. I did kill Albus Dumbledore, after all." He tried to sound proud, but somehow he didn't feel any pride in the accomplishment. He continued, "Or do you believe that he is alive? Did he just sacrifice some fool via polyjuice potion? Ignoring, of course, that it would have worn off." Snape wore a confident smirk.

The witch flashed an eerie grin. "The Dark Lord doesn't know about your little vow though, does he _Snivellus_."

Snape froze on the spot, the smirk gone from his face. His eyes burned with an intense hatred as he slowly opened his mouth to speak. "You wouldn't dare, Lestrange," he said, barely managing to maintain control of his own actions.

Bellatrix smirked in triumph, her eyes flashing wickedly. "Poor Snapey," she taunted the man before her. "Poor, poor Snapey, having to do everything I say…"

"Save your mockery for your victims," Snape said through grinding teeth.

"Changing the subject? Is poor wittle Snapey upset?" Bellatrix replied with satisfaction.

Much to Snape's relief he was spared more of the witch's taunting as they arrived at the large door to the Dark Lord's central throne room. While one might expect it to be some sort of dark and sinister looking cavern, it was actually a rather well lit library of sorts. The Dark Lord always prided himself in being the most advanced magically.

The Dark Lord was already waiting with a few other Inner Council members when Bellatrix and Snape entered the room and took their places in the circle. Bellatrix was rather eager to note that the Dark Lord looked quite pleased.

* * *

There was a clatter of metal against wood as Hermione dropped five white gold rings on the table before them. 

It was the evening of the day Harry, Ron and Neville had successfully passed their Apparation exams. The inner circle of the Order of Light had decided to meet every single evening to go over what they played to train on and any other thoughts they had on their minds.

The group eyed the rings with interest, but looked up at Hermione for an explanation.

"These," Hermione began happily, "are what Harry and I came up with for our emergency transportation problem."

Harry eyed the rings and looked up at Hermione. "I don't remember ever discussing rings or having said anything to you about them," he said, clearly trying to stifle a laugh.

Hermione reddened slightly. "Oops," she said. "I guess I got carried away on my own, but let me explain." She picked up one of the rings and slid it on to her finger. "These are charmed as emergency Portkeys. If we wear them all the time we'll never forget them." She slipped the ring off her finger and laid it back down on the table. "To activate them, all you have to do is say 'I see the Light'."

"Isn't that slightly cliché?" Harry asked.

"Maybe, but I highly doubt anyone who was raised in a Wizard environment will know that," Hermione explained explained matter-of-factly.

Ron picked up one of the rings and began to examine it more closely. "So we just take one of these at say 'I see the Light'-"

The redhead vanished as abruptly as he began speaking. He vanished into a vortex as an invisible hook from his navel seemed to pull him into the ring itself. There was a thud from the entrance hall and shortly after Ron entered the room shaking his head. "They work right, I suppose," he said, trying to cover his embarrassment.

"There's more to them than that," Hermione informed him as she desperately tried to conceal her laughter. "If you look closely you can see engravings around the ring itself with our initials."

Harry grabbed one of the rings and examined it closely. Slowly spinning it in his hands, he saw 'HP RW HG NL LL' engraved on the outside of the ring.

"Are we not taking Ron then?" Ginny asked with a frown as she examined her ring more closely.

"Ginny!" Ron exclaimed hotly, staring at her.

"Actually, apparently we're not taking Ginny…" Harry said as he studied his ring more closely.

Hermione stretched over the table to keep everyone from arguing. "That's because you're holding Ron's, Ginny, and Harry, you're holding Ginny's. You won't need your own initials on your own ring-"

"And why not?" Ron interrupted.

Sighing and glaring at him, Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because they're enchanted to tell the status of every other member of our inner circle. If, say, I look at my ring and see that Neville's initials are a pale red it means he's slightly injured. If his initials are a bright red, he's severely injured. Green means he's been stunned and black means… well… black means…"

"He's dead?" Luna offered dreamily.

Hermione nodded solemnly. "I know it isn't too helpful, but I figured being able to check the status of people at a quick glance would be good… no wondering then…" she trailed off again.

There were certain situations that were never discussed since they all met up. One was the possibility that they wouldn't all be alive to see the end of the war. Since everyday brought more and more news of Voldemort's actions and strange disappearances in the Muggle world, it had dawned on each and every single one of them that the situation was quite serious. Throughout the previous battles they had gotten lucky for one reason or another, but there was a chance that their luck wouldn't hold. This had caused everyone to have a rather solemn and depressed look at each Order meeting, unless of course your name was Luna Lovegood. If it was Luna Lovegood, then you looked the same as always, though Harry had caught you stargazing and looking rather depressed one night.

The group nodded at Hermione's statement, though no one offered another comment. They exchanged the rings until they each had the correct one, and to everyone's surprise but Hermione's, Harry didn't seem to have one made for him. They should have realized this given that there were only five rings on the table to begin with, but somehow that was overlooked.

"Now just a second, Harry," Hermione said as she withdrew a standard jewelry box from her pocket. "This is a special Order of the Light ring for our leader," she informed him as she passed him the box.

Harry opened the box's lid and withdrew a similar white gold ring. There was an easily noticeable difference, though. On Harry's ring there was an engraving of an angel reaching upwards and clutching a circle. There was a small diamond placed to the spot where the angel clutching. Around the rest of the circumference were the initials of the other Inner Circle members, though with one major difference. On the far side of the ring, away from the angel and diamond, were the initials 'SP' engraved larger than all the rest. He said nothing, but simply stared at the large initials. "Do… do you think she'll be injured?" he asked slowly, trying to keep his composure. His voice was already starting to break down.

"What? No… no!" Hermione said quickly as she saw Harry's reaction. "I… I just thought you'd want to know if she ever got hurt even around the house… the rings turn warm when someone gets injured."

Harry nodded, though he was looking directly down at the table. He shook his head to clear it before looking around at his Inner Circle. "Any more news?" he asked quietly. He wasn't sure if more news of murders, crimes and disappearances would actually help his mood, but it would at least change the topic.

Neville nodded slightly. "Another two small towns up north have had their populations entirely disappear. It was in the _Prophet_ this morning, actually. It looks like the Ministry has decided that they can't ignore it anymore," he said. "That, or there was a witch or wizard missing in the latest two towns," he added thoughtfully. Harry believed it was probably the latter. While Scrimgeour was more effective at dealing with the problems in the Wizarding world he, like Fudge before him, tried to ignore all the problems the Wizarding world caused the Muggle world.

"That makes seven since we moved in here," Ginny said, looking quite frightened. "It's not even like he's killing them or anything… maybe he needs slave labor?"

"Maybe we should go up there and look around?" Ron suggested as he admired the ring on his finger.

Hermione disagreed. "We can't. The muggle government has deployed their military up to the towns that have well… vanished. They're patrolling the whole area now and we'd be caught in a second if we went."

"But the military should stop whatever is going on, or at least see what is going on, right?" Neville asked. "I mean if its Dementors even the military will feel them."

"Right," Harry agreed. "We'll need to make sure we read all kinds of Muggle news as well to make sure we don't miss anything. I'm not sure what Voldemort is plotting with all these towns he's attacking, but we can be sure that it isn't good, obviously. Any small clues we can pick up may be vital."

"Could it be a weapon that he's been testing?" Ron asked softly as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Perhaps he was thinking back two years ago when he, Harry and Hermione had discussed a similar situation.

"Maybe he's set a bunch of Tyropats on them," Luna suggested.

"Tyropats?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

As Hermione rolled her eyes, Luna explained. "Yes, Tyropats. Giant winged beasts with hides like stone."

"I highly doubt it," Hermione said with a frustrated sigh.

"Why not?" Luna asked, staring at Hermione with interest, as if analyzing her. "They're big enough to carry people off without a trace."

Harry leaned over and interrupted the two girls before Hermione could reply. "It _could_ be a weapon," he said directing the conversation towards Ron.

"Why wouldn't he just attack the Ministry if he had some weapon that could wipe out that many people without a trace?" Neville asked as he played with the ring on his finger.

"It might not work right yet," Ginny suggested as she watched Luna and Hermione continue to stare each other down. Luna was clearly winning.

"Possibly, but I guess we need to wait for more information before we can make judgment on that one. Anyways, Ginny, how is your Apparation coming?" Harry asked. Ginny was the only one who had come to the Beacon without being able to Apparate.

She reddened slightly. "Actually, I can nearly do it. Hermione says within a few more days I should have it down. I guess when you practice for a bunch of time daily you learn quickly."

"And you don't want to have to rely on Thestrals," Luna added helpfully.

"Good. We need to make sure we can all use the cloaks and Apparate around at a moment's notice," Harry said. He was actually looking forward meeting up with and capturing some Death Eaters while wearing his Order of the Light robes.

Ron grinned. "I can't wait until we get to wear those."

"Just remember what we're using them for and what kind of situation we'll be in when wearing them," Hermione reprimanded. Ron glared at her.

Harry rolled his eyes as he readied himself for another typical round of Ron and Hermione bickering that never came. Though the two seemed to disagree as much as they always did, they never seemed to actually argue anymore now that they were together. All in all, Harry was a little disappointed to see that some things do change after time. "If there's nothing else to discuss I suppose we can get just adjourn this meeting," Harry said.

The group all shook their heads so Harry adjourned the meeting officially. He thought that running meetings officially like the Order of the Phoenix was unnecessary since they were, unlike Dumbledore's Order, composed entirely of close friends. However, at the very first meeting they had all looked directly at him as if they expected him to come up with some ground breaking strategy. After telling them of his discomfort with trying to be formal to a bunch of friends and not wanting to order them around, they of course made him do so. They were expecting him to lead anyways, but of course demanding Harry to act all formal irked him. This is why they continued.

To counteract the slight depression that had befallen the group, all of them maintained a rather relaxed and prankish behavior. More than once Harry had found himself on the receiving end of a prank. However, Harry knew that he had the ultimate trump card for the ensuing prank wars. The Marauders Log was still upstairs and sitting in one of the draws to his nightstand. He had yet to break it out and look for pranks until he was sure of his prank war allies. Whoever was on his side, it was blatantly clear that Ron and Hermione had taken up a position against him.

Harry woke up the next morning groggily like he was doing every morning now. Hermione tried to stress that he needed more of a routine, but he just didn't feel like getting up at 7:30 each morning if there was no real need for it. Ron backed him up and said that it was the nature of all teenage boys to sleep to whenever they like. Hermione couldn't argue with his statement.

This morning, however, Harry slowly stumbled his way over to the small bathroom that the master suite seemed to contain. He turned the doorknob and pushed, but the door didn't move. Shaking his head to clear it of sleep, he tried again with similar results. He frowned and went back to his night stand to retrieve his wand. "_Alohomora_!" he said firmly. The tip of his wand glowed, but nothing happened.

Groaning now, he headed down the hall to the regular bathroom on his floor. The door refused to open after Harry tried both regular and magical means. He blinked a few times, trying to wake himself up and understand what was going on.

"Good morning, Harry," Luna said dreamily behind him. She was wearing a night gown and was carrying a towel over her shoulder. She grabbed the doorknob and opened the door with no problem. "It's a good idea to wait an hour outside a bathroom door in case there's Splipties inside, but I checked last night and there was none." Luna closed the door behind her and Harry heard the sound of running water as the girl turned on the shower.

This did little besides confuse Harry even more as he tried to comprehend what Luna had told him and why she was able to enter the bathroom when it was clearly resisting all his efforts. After the bathroom on the second floor wielded the same results as both previous ones he had tried, he sighed and decided to face the music by heading into the kitchen.

"Normally people get dressed before coming down to breakfast, mate," Ron said from the island. He was sitting on one of the stools and quickly devouring a large plate of scrambled eggs.

Harry looked down and blushed. He had forgotten that he was only wearing pajama bottoms. He had taken to sleeping in only the bottoms when the weather was as warm as it was, but this was the first time he had forgotten to get dressed. The reason, of course, was that he always dressed after he had taken a shower to wake himself up. Without the shower, he found that he was still groggy. "You wouldn't happen to know why I can't seem to enter any bathroom in the house, would you, Ron?" Harry asked while trying to glare, but his drowsiness cut down on whatever effect it would have had.

Hermione came up and sat on the stool next to Ron with a bowl of oatmeal. "What's the matter, Harry? Not that I don't mind the view or anything…"

Blushing and trying to cover his chest completely unsuccessfully by folding his arms, Harry sighed. "I have a feeling you know."

"Maybe," Hermione said as she concentrated on her oatmeal and left him standing there. Ron continued to eat his eggs as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Harry would have been more stubborn, but he was starting to really, really have to go. "Alright! Alright!" he cried. "Tell me what you did! I need to bloody well use the loo."

Ron and Hermione grinned before bursting out in laughter. Harry glared and hopped from one foot to the other, which only made them laugh harder. "Just dispel the charm with a simple 'Finite Incatatem'. Honestly, Harry, sometimes I wonder…"

"Save it," Harry said rather quickly as he sped out of the room to the bathroom in the main hallway. After dispelling the charm, ward or whatever Hermione had put on all the bathrooms, he entered.

A few minutes later Harry returned to the kitchen wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe that he had found in the bathroom. He thought it was odd seeing as no one would be using this bathroom to shower when there were more convenient ones located nearer to each bedroom.

"And now you've decided to wear Ginny's bathrobe, I see," Hermione said before succumbing to a second fit of giggles. Ron soon followed as did Sarah who was now sitting at island with a similar bowl of oatmeal.

Harry glared at the three of them and they tried their best to hide their laughter. "And what, pray tell, did you do?" he asked finally, figuring at least one of them would be bursting to tell him how they had pulled one over the son of a Marauder.

"It was a simple charm, actually, though it was pretty weak. Ron was right in suspecting that you'd be too asleep still to try dispelling it," Hermione said with a grin.

"And this is what you've been studying all this time?" Harry asked flatly as he collapsed into one of the stools, slumping in defeat.

"Heavens no," Hermione said, looking aghast. "Sarah found that one herself. She suggested it, actually."

Sarah immediately sunk down on the stool and tried to hide behind her bowl of oatmeal, her cheeks turning pink.

"Oh she did, did she?" Harry said with interest as he turned to face his daughter. "Upstairs, now," he commanded. Sarah nervously followed him all the way back to his room. On the way Luna had commented on Harry's choice of bathrobe, though she stated that she liked his original choice of clothes better. This caused Harry to have a blush on his face by the time he closed the door to his room behind him.

"You're… you're not mad are you?" Sarah asked nervously.

"Nope," Harry replied with a mischievous grin. "But I am giving you one chance and one chance only to join the winning side or you'll learn the hard way that you shouldn't mess with the Marauders." He sat down on the edge of his bed and took out the Marauder's Log. "Now then, the question is, are you in?"

Sarah nodded, grinned and sat down on the bed beside Harry as he began to flip through the book.

"Alright, this is what we're going to do…" he informed the girl as he pointed at one page in particular.

* * *

After finally having his much needed shower and having his prank decided upon, Harry set off by Apparation into the drawing room of Grimmauld Place to meet with Mad-Eye Moody. He was hoping that his information gathering attempt would not be in vain, but he was pretty sure Lucius Malfoy would be in a bargaining mood. 

He looked around at the empty room, which was completely devoid of all furniture except for the large Black family tapestry that clearly hadn't been removed yet. He gazed solemnly at Sirius' black scorch mark and felt rather proud knowing that Sirius would approve of his actions.

He headed down to the main kitchen area where he assumed that Moody would be waiting, but he was greeted instead by Tonks who was just waking up by the looks of it.

She yawned and offered him a tired smile. "Wotcher, Harry."

"Morning, Tonks. Has Moody been around?" he asked, suddenly wondering if he had assumed wrong about the location he was supposed to meet the grizzled ex-auror at.

Tonks shrugged. "Beats me. If he sent you one of those 'meet me you know where' messages then you're at the right place," she said as she yawned again and slowly sipped from her cup of steaming coffee.

"Long night?" Harry said as he pulled up a chair and sat across from her.

"Nope, Remus wasn't around," she replied. She waited until he went crimson with embarrassment before laughing. "Yes, actually. I had an overnight shift."

"Err… I see," Harry said as he tried to get the mental image out of his head.

"Judging by your reaction, I'd assume you haven't gotten any use out of that book I gave you?" Tonks asked, merely gazing at him and waiting for his reaction.

Harry turned a deeper shade of red, if it was possible. "No!" he replied suddenly.

"What? I'll have to talk with Ginny then," Tonks said with a very serious look on her face.

He sputtered out some incoherent reply for a second before Tonks grinned. "You're too easy to wind up, Harry," she said with a wink.

Harry was spared further torture by the arrival of Moody. "Having trouble breathing, Potter?" he asked upon seeing Harry's face.

"Err, no," Harry replied slowly as Tonks continued to chuckle softly.

"Alright then. We've got no time to waste, Potter," Moody said as he came up to the side of the table. "Morning, Nymphadora," he said with a growl. "I'd appreciate it if you could keep Potter from choking. He's rather important."

Tonks stuck out her tongue at Moody. "Don't call me that, Mad-Eye," she said before getting up from the table to refill her coffee cup.

"Grab my arm, Potter," Moody commanded. "Only way to get to the docks is Apparation and it's impossible if you've never been there before."

Despite finding this statement rather odd, Harry gripped Moody's arm and with a soft pop they disappeared from Grimmauld Place.

The first thing Harry noticed about his destination was that the sun was gone. There were large, dark clouds blocking out the sky entirely and a chilly wind blowing. _Must be up pretty far north, then_, he thought as he looked around at his general surroundings. "Where are we, exactly?" he asked his companion.

"The place doesn't have a name, but most just called it 'the Docks', since taking a boat is the only way to Azkaban itself," Moody growled as he lead him from the fenced in Apparation point towards a small tower which stood beside a few piers.

"And Azkaban has Anti-Apparation, I would assume?" Harry asked as he followed Moody down towards the tower.

"And this place as well. If you try to Apparate to anywhere but that small area you'll find that you landed in a holding cell in the tower over there. You'd better have some really good story and proper clearance if you do end up there, or it'll take you a long while to get out," Moody growled as he buttoned up his typical trench coat to stop the biting wind. Harry wished that he had worn his Order of Light robes due to the warming charms that were placed on it, rather than his regular school robes.

Harry followed Moody into the stone tower, which he was surprised to see actually wasn't a lighthouse of any sort. It looked much like a Muggle police station, but without the computers and other such things.

"Afternoon, White," Moody said in greeting to the Auror who had looked up from behind his desk when the door banged closed behind Moody and Harry.

"Mad-Eye, it's been years," White replied with a grin. "And this must be Harry Potter, obviously," he said giving Harry the typical once over.

Moody shrugged. "Been busy, White. Real busy." He offered no further explanation other than that.

"I figured as much," White said with a sigh. "Anyways this really isn't legal," the Auror said as he leaned over and whispered so that only Harry and Moody could hear him. "Even as an ex-Auror you aren't allowed over there, and Mr. Potter has even less of a reason… however I still do owe you big time for twenty years ago so…" he sat back in his chair and called over his shoulder. "Diana! I need you to cover for me for a few hours!"

A witch dressed in the same Auror uniform as White appeared from one of the many rooms around the tower. She rolled her eyes. "How many times have I heard that before?"

"I'll owe you one, ok?" White told her as he stood up and headed around to the other side of the counter beside Moody and Harry.

"No, you'll owe me _one more_," the witch Harry only knew as Diana replied as she took White's seat and shuffled some papers around. "The least you could do is keep an organized work station."

White blew her a kiss sarcastically. "Yes dear," he said as he lead Moody and Harry out of the tower and down towards the piers.

Harry just realized now, but there were no boats of any kind at the piers. He could see what he thought was Azkaban off in the distance, but beyond a lot of crashing waves and violent sea.

The Auror lead them to the end of one of the piers and seemed to be undaunted by the fact there was nothing there. _Or is there?_ Harry thought as he looked more closely. He could see the faint outline of something large shimmering at the end of the pier. With a wave of his wand, White dispelled the spell over the boat, which caused it to abruptly come back into view.

It seemed like a rather large sailboat, but it was still something that Harry definitely didn't want to take across to Azkaban in such whether. Moody and White apparently didn't share his hesitation as they boarded it immediately.

"Don't tell me you get seasick, Potter," Moody growled from onboard. Harry shook his head. "Then come on already."

Harry hesitantly boarded the sailboat while White pointed his wand at various parts. With a slight jerk the boat began to slide forward. Surprisingly, there was very little rocking or water coming over the side. _Right, magic,_ Harry thought and mentally chided himself for being so foolish. There were just some things he would always forget, and magic seemed to be one of them no matter how silly that seemed.

The boat ride took over an hour to reach the island where Azkaban Fortress stood. The trip had been frigid to say the least and the arctic winds continued to bite through his simple school robes and chill his bones. This had gone on until Moody commented that there were such things as warming charms. This explained to Harry why both Moody and White didn't seem to be affected by the weather at all.

Harry could easily tell why Azkaban was referred to as a fortress. The place was just as massive as Hogwarts, but while Hogwarts radiated warmth, Azkaban only gave off a frightening chill. The walls looked like they were made of black stone and had many odd, frightening carvings all over them. Gargoyles and other fearsome statues of demons lined the walls and the towers. The tallest tower, which stood in the middle of the fortress, seemed like it had a large claw grasping at it as jagged spikes extended from the tower and gradually curled back towards it.

"Scared, Potter?" Moody asked loudly over the wind as the boat docked at the single long pier at the base of the island.

He nodded slightly and Moody laughed.

"It used to belong to a Dark Lord way back when. We figured it would make a good first impression on the Death Eater scum we bring here," Moody explained as he slowly stepped off the boat and wobbled due to his wooden leg.

Harry silently followed him and readily agreed that it was intimidating. He couldn't imagine it being anymore cheerful inside and realized it would have been far worse if the Dementors still guarded the prison.

White led them to the large iron doors that happened to be the main entrance. There was a giant wolf carved on the metal doors that appeared to be sitting on its hind legs and howling at the moon. With a grinding sound the doors seemed to open on their own as soon as the Auror had pointed his wand at them.

Following Moody and White instead, Harry found that his prediction about the inner fortress was in fact true. The black stone was used for the walls and ceiling, but there was simply a black marble flooring.

"Auror Henry White with Alastor Moody and Harry Potter," White informed the two Aurors seated behind what looked to be a simple guard booth that could be at any larger muggle office. Grunnings had one just like it.

The two Aurors glanced at each other. The male Auror, who looked to be about the same age as White and Moody, nodded to the young woman with short black hair beside him and gestured towards Harry and Moody.

Much to Harry's surprise, the Auror walked over to him and began tracing all over his body with the tip of her wand, which continually glowed a bright red. "Spread your legs please, Mr. Potter," the witch said slowly, trying to hide a slight blush appearing in her cheeks.

Due to the young woman's comment, Harry himself reddened as he moved his right leg farther to the side and allowed the wand to trace his inner thighs.

"We can't be too careful," the Auror informed him as she finished going over his body.

"If you're quite done flirting with Mr. Potter, Miss Ross, our time is short," White said with an exasperated sigh.

Ross rolled her eyes as she moved away from Harry and over to Moody to repeat the treatment.

"You could be a stand in for Tonks any day," Harry muttered under his breath.

"You know Nymphadora?" Ross asked, turning back to face Harry so quickly that her wand smacked Moody in the side of the head. She had been going over his shoulders.

While Moody growled and cursed, Harry nodded. "I've known her for about two years now. She likes to embarrass me," he told Ross truthfully.

The young Auror gave him a big grin. "Tell her Rachel said hi, and that she's lucky she isn't stuck on Azkaban detail for four months."

"_Miss Ross_," said White angrily. "Can we _please_ get on with this? At the very least finish scanning Alastor so he won't rave on about how lax security is."

Ross blushed slightly and turned back to Moody, who was indeed staring daggers at her. She finished scanning while Moody tried to do his best and intimidate her with a stern glare and his spinning magical eye. He failed.

When Ross had finished with her scanning and turned up nothing, White lead Harry and Moody down a spiral staircase towards, presumably, the dungeons. "Argh, I forgot. I've got to get special clearance for our maximum security area. This is what I get for working on the other side of the docks too long," White said as Harry and Moody reached a long corridor at the bottom of the stairs. "Stay put and don't wander," White instructed as he turned around and headed back up the stairs.

Moody moved close to Harry's ear when he was sure that White was out of earshot. "I'm seeing spots, Potter." Harry gave him back a slightly confused look. "The Mark, Potter, the Mark. White has it, the bastard. I thought I knew him well enough," Moody growled.

Harry immediately went for his wand, but Moody stopped him by grasping his arm.

"No, Potter," Moody said as his magical eye whirled around to focus on the ceiling. "He's actually going to get a security item that he needs. If we stop him here you won't be allowed in to talk to Malfoy. Act normal. We'll deal with it later," he wheezed as the sound of footsteps echoed down the staircase.

White emerged out of the stairwell and looked at Moody and Harry curiously.

"Moody was just telling me some of his stories about how he filled Azkaban up," Harry said quickly. "Some of the stories are rather… interesting," he said giving White a fake small smile.

The Auror laughed. "Yeah, Alastor was responsible for filling up this place for his entire career. Never a better Auror than Alastor," White said as he led them down the corridor.

Harry watched White as unobtrusively as he thought possible and kept himself ready to draw his wand on a moments notice. Somehow, he would have been happier not knowing that Moody spied the Dark Mark on White's forearm. His thoughts stopped as the group came to a solid black marble wall. Harry frowned, wondering just what exactly they were doing staring at a dead end.

White had other ideas, however. He produced a small black wolf figurine and touched the snout to the wall. Immediately there was a loud rumbling and the entire wall seemed to sink away into the ground. White pocketed the figurine and led them though into the now open corridor.

It was here that Harry saw his first actual Azkaban cell. The bars seemed to be a thick solid marble just like the floor. As they passed the first cell, the occupant yelled out to the group.

"If it isn't Potter. Tell me, how's that brunette I hit with my curse," Dolohov said with a large grin, showing quite a bit of teeth.

Harry stopped dead in his tracks and advanced on the cell as the Death Eater grinned triumphantly at him. "She's alive, actually. Alive and plotting the downfall of your so called 'Master'," he replied angrily.

"She won't be next time," Dolohov commented casually, enjoying how easy it was to wind Harry up.

"Shut it, scum," White said viciously as he came up behind Harry. "Potter, we don't allow talking with the prisoners," he said flatly as he laid a hand on Harry's shoulder to pull him away. Harry glared back at Dolohov, who gave him a jovial wave.

They passed a few more cells in which the occupants merely glared at Harry, Moody and White. Harry spotted Crabbe and Goyle about halfway down the hall, but they barely acknowledged him. It was the prisoner in the next cell that caused the next commotion.

"When I get out of here I'll finish what I started with your leg!" bellowed a Death Eater that Harry had seen in Dumbledore's pensieve during his fourth year.

"You think so, Rabastan? You're welcome to try if you ever get out," Moody said flatly, his magical eye pointing at Rabastan Lestrange through the back of his skull.

"Alastor!" snapped White. "I figured you of all people would know better."

As Moody guffawed while White tried to lecture him, Harry was caught lingering his eyes on the next prisoner. He had a horribly disfigured face. The right side in particular had small patches of artificial flesh attached to an oddly cracked and shaped skull. The left side of his face was badly marked with scars. He noticed that he only had one eye left, but given the state of half his face it wasn't a surprise.

"Get a good look, Potter. This is what your little blonde bitch did to me with her little planet explosion trick over a year ago. When I get my hands on her, I'll make her regret what she did. I'll make her stare into this mangled face she left me with while I violate her and destroy her body. It's been so long since I've had physical contact," the Death Eater said as he approached the bars quickly and sneered at Harry.

Harry was forced to take a step back as the full force of the Death Eater's words hit him coupled with the shock of seeing the man's disfigured face up close. "It doesn't surprise me, Rodolphus. I highly doubt Bellatrix would have gotten off looking at your face _before_ Luna did that to you. In fact, I'll have to thank Luna for the improvement," Harry snapped back as the shock wore off.

"Why you-" Rodolphus said as he tried to grab Harry through the bars with a look of intense hatred in his eyes and what was left of his mouth twisted into a horrific baring of his teeth.

"Potter!" White yelled angrily as he pointed his wand and shot some sparks at Rodolphus. By the look of Rodolphus' reaction, the sparks were somewhat painful. "_Do. Not. Talk. To. The. Prisoners_," he spat out slowly. "I am doing this as a favor to Alastor, but I will not hesitate to pull you both out of here if you cannot follow one simple rule."

Harry nodded. "Fine," he muttered, not quite thinking it was fair when they kept provoking him. He had endured enough taunting from Death Eaters in his short few years coming into contact with them without snapping back that he felt he should be allowed.

They passed only a few more faces that Harry recognized. Macnair simply glared Harry down while Rookwood wouldn't meet his gaze. At the end of the corridor they took a left and saw two Aurors sitting pacing up at down the hall.

"Patrol the other hall for a bit. Harry Potter has some private business with one of the prisoners in this one," White said as he passed one of the Aurors. Seeing as the two Aurors complied without a word, Harry assumed that White had some sort of power over the Azkaban Auror detail.

Lucius Malfoy sat in the last cell that Harry could see. Azkaban life had not been kind to him. His well groomed hair was now greasy and filled with grime. His face appeared to have some black dirt smudged on it. His clothes were no longer the best that money could buy. Instead he wore the standard, dirty pale blue one piece suit that every other inmate wore. His eyes, Harry noticed, were still as cold and cruel as ever.

"So, come to gloat, Potter?" he drawled as he caught sight of visitors.

Harry shook his head. "No, I've come for information, actually."

Lucius gave off a cold laugh. "And why would I give you anything?"

"Because you know as well as I do that you're dead if you ever get out of Azkaban," Harry replied evenly.

The Death Eater raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? And who's going to do that. You, Potter?"

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. "Let's cut the crap, Malfoy. You know that you're in hot water with Voldemort as well." He took pleasure in the fact that Lucius flinched upon hearing the name.

"Humor me, Potter. What have I done?" he asked in his typical drawling voice.

"If I have to spell it out for you, fine. You've failed on numerous occasions as has everyone else in here, but you also destroyed part of Voldemort's soul with your own recklessness and greed," Harry said, staring directly into Lucius Malfoy's grey eyes.

Lucius frowned. "Very good, Potter. I still don't see why I should help you, though."

"Because I can make sure you stay in here for a very long time," Harry said flatly.

The Death Eater gave another hollow laugh. "And I'll be dead the split second the Dark Lord breaks in here to free us all."

"Alright then," Harry said, frowning. "You can be transferred somewhere else. Somewhere under Fidelius if need be."

"Now just a minute, Potter!" White cried angrily from behind him. Moody grabbed the Auror and pulled him away.

"Let Potter do what he has to do, White," Moody grunted.

"Interesting as that seems, it appears you can't even do that, Potter," Lucius replied with an arrogant smirk.

Harry shrugged. "Well, I happen to have influence with the Minister. If you don't want the offer, I'll just leave." He turned to go.

Lucius glanced from White to Harry for a few minutes before slightly hanging his head in defeat. "What is it you want, Potter?" he asked in a soft tone.

"Oh look, the bloody arrogant Malfoy has finally realized he's beaten," Harry said with a false sweet smile. "I want to know about the Diary. Where and when did you get it?" he asked before Lucius could make a retort to his first comment, though the older man's face was twisted in rage.

"Fancy a little soul hunting, Potter? You won't find them," Lucius snapped, still bitter from the taunt Harry had used seconds ago.

"If that's the way you feel, I'll just leave then," Harry threatened. He knew it was a hollow threat, but he hoped that Lucius wouldn't know.

Lucius glared at him. "The Dark Lord gave it to me a few months before he lost his power," he stated.

"Did he give a reason?" Harry asked.

"No, and I wasn't foolish enough to ask why. One does not ask why the Dark Lord does certain things," the Death Eater replied as if Harry was a complete idiot.

"He must have said something. He wouldn't give a piece of his soul to you without saying anything," Harry said, frowning at the man.

"He told me about how it could be used to open up the Chamber of Secrets and that I was to keep it safe," Lucius said. "Unfortunately, you had to impale it with a Basilisk fang."

"Yeah, well, the thing was about to kill Ginny. I'd say sacrificing a ruddy piece of Voldemort's soul to save her life was well worth it," Harry shot back with a glare.

"I want to be out of here as soon as possible, Potter," Lucius said quickly.

"As soon as I can manage, but we're not done here yet. Did Voldemort ever mention anything about taking the Diary to Hogwarts?"

"No. He didn't tell me what it was supposed to be used for," Lucius replied, getting annoyed. "Are you quite done?"

Harry thought for a moment. His main question had been answered, but he was wondering if there was anymore information he would be able to dig out of the man. "Yes, for now. I may have further questions later."

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Potter. I want out of here quickly. The Dark Lord won't hesitate to break free his supporters now that Dumbledore is dead," the Death Eater drawled again while his cold eyes pierced Harry.

"Right. You have my word," Harry said as he turned and left.

"Spare me the Gryffindor chivalry," Malfoy drawled as Harry met up with White and Moody at the end of the hall.

The journey back to the entrance of Azkaban was entirely uneventful, except for Dolohov and Rabastan making a few choice comments as they passed. Harry said good bye to Rachel Ross and promised to pass on her message to Tonks the next time he saw her. He also noticed that Moody was watching White very closely with his magical eye.

This time Harry remembered to apply a warming charm to his robes before he stepped outside the iron gates of Azkaban. The wind still bit against his face, but it was better than freezing his entire body off. The boat ride took less time heading back to the 'docks', or so everyone referred to it, since the current was heading in that direction.

White bid them good day and returned to his post inside the tower, leaving Harry and Moody to travel wherever they wished. "I'm off to the Ministry to report White," Moody grunted and disappeared with a pop. Harry was rather happy to be leaving the icy fortress of Azkaban behind.

Harry took out his wand and Apparated back to the Beacon to tell everyone what he had learned from Lucius Malfoy.

* * *

"So it was his plan all along?" Ginny asked slowly. She was still remembering her entire ordeal with the Diary and it was quite painful. 

Harry nodded. "Lucius Malfoy gave you the Diary to further his own gains. It's gotten him into a lot of trouble."

They were seated on couches and in armchairs casually in the living room of the Beacon. Harry was just going over the entire details of his trip to Azkaban, starting with what the prison was like, Henry White being a Death Eater and finally his chat with Lucius Malfoy. He left out the comments that certain Death Eaters had made about his friends, however.

"But what does that information say?" Hermione asked him. She had a piece of parchment on her lap and a quill poised to take down any important information.

"What it means," Harry began, "is that since the Diary wasn't, to our knowledge, supposed to be at Hogwarts it means that one of his Horcruxes happens to be there."

They blinked a few times and Harry realized he hadn't really explained fully. He had merely given them a basic overview of the Horcrux situation at Hogwarts. "Voldemort places his Horcruxes at locations that are significant to him, like his grandfather's house and a cave where he developed his magical powers enough to torment muggles with them. If the Diary wasn't intended to be at Hogwarts, another Horcrux must be there. Dumbledore told me that Voldemort loved Hogwarts more than anything. There must be a Horcrux there."

"Then we should head there immediately," Neville said. "The quicker we find them, the quicker this war should end."

"I'll write McGonagall right away. If I can't get a hold of her, I'll simply ask the board of governors at that meeting your gran and McGonagall wanted me to go to," Harry replied to Neville.

* * *

Harry silently crept out of his room and met his accomplice a few feet away coming out of her own bedroom. The two exchanged hushed words and slowly crept down two flights of stairs as carefully as they could to avoid making loud creaking noises. It was the middle of the night and they didn't wake to wake anyone, let alone their targets, up. 

They silently entered the large ballroom and headed over to where three large bookcases were stacked side by side in the corner.

"Do you remember the spell?" the male Marauder asked.

His female accomplice nodded and pointed her wand at the books. There was a flash of blue light as the girl executed the spell perfectly.

The two Marauders exchanged mischievous smiles with each other and traded a high five. "Mischief managed. Now on to part B."

Part B was harder. The two Marauders crept back up to the second floor of the house and gently opened the door of their victim. The sound of loud snoring immediately hit their ears. Apparently the victim had made use of a silencing charm.

The older Marauder crept up close to the slumbering redhead and used a newly learned incantation. The victim gave a snort, but did not wake up. He crept back to where his other accomplice was waiting by the door.

"You know," he began in a whisper. "If I ever catch you sneaking into a boy's room without me, we'll be having a long talk." He was disappointed that the room was too dark for him to see her blush.

The two quickly made their way back up to the male Marauder's room and closed the door. They grinned and sat down on the bed. Harry pulled out the Marauder's log and took out a quill. He flipped to the last page, which was blank.

_Harry and Sarah here. Mission Successful. Bushy and Red pranked successfully. Awaiting reaction in the morning._

He finished writing on the last page. Harry knew he'd wait until tomorrow to write in the full story based on Ron and Hermione's reactions. However, as he looked at what he had written, he saw the ink changing before his eyes. 'Harry' had changed to 'Prongs Jr.' and 'Sarah' had changed to 'Prongs' granddaughter'.

_Mr. Padfoot would like to congratulate Prongs Jr. on being such a player. It must have taken some slick talking to have a daughter at your age._

_Mr. Prongs would like to remind Mr. Padfoot that he's on thin ice._

_Mr. Wormtail would like to congratulate Prongs Jr. on his adoption._

_Mr. Moony would like say how great it is to a see future generation of Marauders causing havoc._

"What doe sit say?" Sarah asked him as she saw writing start appearing out of nowhere.

Harry took one look at Padfoot's comment before covering the page with his arm. "Erm, nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing," she replied as she scooted closer and tried to get a look. "Oh come on, let me see!"

Giving in, Harry removed his arm and watched Sarah blush, much like he himself did in every conversation he had with Tonks.

Sarah surprised him with what she said, though. "Why don't we have nicknames?"

Harry laughed. "Moony, that's actually Remus Lupin, said you need to be an animagus to get an official nickname. He's a werewolf, so hence Moony. Padfoot was Sirius Black, my godfather. He was a large black dog. Prongs was my father, James. He was a stag. Finally, Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew. You might have heard us talking about him in the Order meetings. He betrayed my parents, Sirius and Remus. He turns into a rat that now has a metal paw. If you see something like that, stun it right away and get one of us." His explanation turned more into a lecture than he would have liked, but he figured it was a good thing that Sarah knew to watch out of Pettigew in his rat form.

"So we have to become an animagus or a werewolf to get a nickname?" she asked, somewhat disappointed.

"Maybe," he said with a grin. "Perhaps next time we see him we can show Moony our abilities. That might twist his arm into letting has nicknames without spending years working on it."

"Alright! There's loads of fun stuff in that book," she said excitedly.

"Here," he said, handing over the Marauder's log to her. "Feel free to pick out our next pranks, but don't let that fall into the wrong hands." He looked at his watch. "And since it's still two in the morning, you'd best be getting back to bed."

Sarah grudgingly agreed and headed back to her own room with the Marauder's Log. Harry strongly suspected that she'd spend most of the night reading it, but on the other hand it wasn't as if she had anything to wake up for tomorrow except for Ron and Hermione's reaction. With the thought of Ron and Hermione's reaction, he laid back on his bed with a grin on his face and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Both Harry and Sarah were up early and eating a breakfast of pancakes when Ron and Hermione entered the kitchen within five minutes of each other. Without trying to act odd, they both kept an eye on Ron specifically as he prepared himself his usual breakfast of a plate of eggs.

Ron sat down around ten minutes later, not realizing that Harry and Sarah had long since finished eating and were watching him intently now. He speared an egg with his fork and moved it towards his mouth. Just before it entered, the egg jumped off his fork and landed back on his plate. He blinked a few times before trying again with the same results. Continued attempts yielded no change as both Harry and Sarah begin to snigger uncontrollably.

"What the bloody hell did you do?" Ron exclaimed as he turned to face the laughing Marauders.

"Mischief managed," Sarah said with a smug grin.

"Oi! Hermione! We've got a traitor!" Ron said, calling Hermione to the table. "And they've jinxed me so that food jumps away from mouth!"

Even Hermione found Ron's predicament rather amusing, though she knew that she most likely had something coming her way. "I guess her loyalties lie elsewhere, Ron," Hermione said as she successfully managed to eat a forkful of Ron's breakfast. "This is quite good, Ron, you could cook some for us sometime, you know."

"You can have them," Ron said grumpily as he pushed the plate over to Hermione's seating. "It's not like I can eat them"

It was around noon that Harry and Sarah were truly waiting for. This was the time that Hermione usually started her afternoon by picking a book off the shelf and reading it to learn some new charms or spells. Sarah had confessed to Harry that Hermione was the true mastermind of the bathroom prank, so the elder Marauder was looking forward to getting her back more than Ron.

They watched from the far side of the giant ballroom while Harry pretended to be helping Sarah learn a banishing charm.

Hermione simply selected a book off the shelf like she normally did and tried to open it. However, the book wouldn't open. She tried pulling on it harder, wondering if some of the pages were sealed together. Try as she might, she was entirely unable to open that book. Sensing the Marauders behind the situation, she cast a simple 'Finite Incantatem' on the book she was holding.

Harry grinned at Sarah. Sarah he cast the spell on the entire bookcase, not each individual book. For it to be dispelled, Hermione would have to dispel it in a similar fashion. The two of them watched in fascination as Hermione began to grab book after book off the shell in a vain attempt to open one of them. Eventually, she turned on her heel and headed straight for Harry and Sarah.

"Alright you two!" she ranted. "I never did something this cruel to you!"

This only caused Harry to laugh even more. It only stopped when Hermione had hit him with a silencing charm and left it on him until he removed both the bookshelf charm and the jinx on Ron.

* * *

A few days later Harry, at about noon, was sitting in an armchair rather impatiently waiting for Susan to contact him via the Floo network. Harry had realized that owl post would take a considerable amount of time since he was not in fact in London, but quite a distance away. He had almost immediately sent Hedwig to Susan telling her of a better way. She would head to the Leaky Cauldron and simply use their fireplace to contact Harry. Tom the barkeep had his Floo access turned to communication only, no traveling. 

Susan had sent Hedwig back telling him that she expected to be at the Leaky Cauldron around noon on Monday, but wasn't sure of the exact time. She would simply call Harry and he would Apparate to the Leaky Cauldron and Apparate back with her.

Sarah was sitting on the couch beside him and reading a book on minor medical healing. Harry was still quite shocked that she seemed to understand and be interested in things way above her level, but Luna had told him that's what Ravenclaws do.

Harry sat tapping his fingers nervously on the arm of the chair and waited. Susan's letter had also said that she felt like she as being followed from her job back to her apartment. While Harry admitted that Susan could have been a little paranoid after his insistence that she come live at the Beacon due to the conflict with Nott, he wasn't about to take any chances.

It took another half an hour before Susan's face appeared in the fire, but she was quite distressed. "Harry! Is anyone there?" she panicked and kept turning her head to look over her shoulder. "There's an emergency!"

Diving towards the fireplace, Harry immediately asked her what was wrong.

"Death Eaters! They came to my apartment a few minutes ago as I was leaving… I managed to get out the back without them noticing… at least until I got to the street. They're coming this way right now… what should I do?" Susan asked, clearly frightened. It was for a good reason, though.

Harry thought for a split second. Ron's words about running and standing to fight replayed through his mind as he made his choice. "Hide. We'll be right there," he said finally before pulling away from the fire.

"Hide? We? Harry what-" Susan began before she looked over her shoulder, gulped and disappeared from the fire.

"We're going! Right now! This is not a drill!" Harry yelled as he reached the entrance hall. He didn't care that it sounded, once again, cliché.

Harry had trained the Order of Light to reply on a moments notice. Right now he could hear the sound of footsteps running around the house. It only took a full minute for them to appear in the Entrance hall beside him. The group quickly donned their white Order robes, which were hung on simple hooks in the entrance hall, and stared at Harry expectantly.

The robes had slight concealment charms on the hoods so that when they were up it would conceal all but from their mouths down with what looked like shadows. In addition to that, Harry hoped that since their identities wouldn't be known he might eventually be able to intimidate the Death Eaters like they did to everyone else with their black robes and white masks.

"Susan's in trouble. We Apparate to the backyard of the Leaky Cauldron where that barrier to Diagon Alley is. Death Eaters are approaching from the muggle side. Everyone ready?" Harry explained as he eyed them. They were all looking quite mysterious and powerful under their robes. He grinned. The Death Eaters would never know what hit them.

The others nodded and said nothing. In unison the six members of the Order of Light waved their wands and Apparated away.

They landed sure-footedly and quickly entered the Leaky Cauldron through the backdoor just as a large group of Death Eaters entered through the front door. Both seemed to just stop in their tracks and stare at each other from across the main room.

One of the Death Eaters stepped forward and laughed upon fully taking in the white robed warriors, catching sight of the red hearts on their sleeves. "And just what the fuck is this?"

Harry recognized the voice instantly. It was O'Toole; a Slytherin who had left Hogwarts mysteriously with Blaise Zabini and a rather large group following Dumbledore's funeral.

"Some people you don't want to mess with?" Harry offered as the Order of Light spread out into more of a line. The Death Eaters slowly did the same.

"Right," O'Toole replied, still obviously thinking the entire situation was ridiculous. "And you bloody well think that the six of you can beat the ten of us?" he said arrogantly as he gestured behind him. Some of the other Death Eaters sniggered while a few laughed outright much like O'Toole himself had done moments earlier.

"Yeah, I'd bet on it," Ginny muttered immediately to Harry's left a little too loudly.

"Ooooh, a woman," O'Toole said and Harry was sure that he was smirking stupidly under his mask. "Look, boys, it looks like we can have some fun after this over."

There was moment in the corner of Harry's eye and he, along with everyone else, watched flat footed as Ginny moved a step forward in mid spell cast. After a flash of light, O'Toole, in the blink of an eye, was thrown backwards into the two Death Eaters standing behind him, howling in pain and clutching his face.

It took a moment for everyone to comprehend what had happened, but once everyone realized that Ginny had basically crushed O'Toole's face with a blunt force curse, the room erupted in chaos.

Harry immediately stepped forward and throw up a shield charm as one of the Death Eaters still standing fired a purple jet of light at him. It crackled against his shield and Harry returned fire with a similar blunt force spell that Ginny had used a few seconds earlier.

He didn't have time to see if his spell connected as immediately there was a blow to the back of his head accompanied with a loud cracking sound. A moment later Harry found himself sprawled on the floor with pieces of broken wood cover him. His vision was blurry and he was temporarily groggy. It took him a moment to realize that a Death Eater had summoned a chair from behind him, which connected with the back of his head.

Harry rolled to the side and narrowly avoided being hit by a cutting hex, which ripped right through the wooden floor in a shower of sparks. He caught sight of either Ron or Neville, he wasn't sure which, hit a Death Eater in the eyes with a painful Conjunctivitis curse. He shakily got to his feet and quickly blew a table that was heading directly for him with a well timed Reductor curse.

There was a splash of white followed by black that sped by Harry's vision as one of the members of the Order was dueling with a Death Eater much like Kingsley Shacklebolt had done in the Department of Mysteries with a lot of movement.

As the splinters stung and cut into his face, he dove underneath a table to his right. Harry pointed his wand at the underside of the table and banished it towards the front door and the largest concentration of Death Eaters. There was a cry of surprise, a splintering sound as the table broke apart and a few thuds that told Harry he hit at least two of his targets.

He stood up again and took quick inventory of the situation. In the back corner he spied a white cloaked figure serenely dodging curses from two Death Eaters that were moving in on her. Harry leapt forward and pointed his wand at the back of one of the figures. "_Stupefy_!" he cried and the figure slumped down to the ground. The other turned around, leaving Luna for a moment, and raised his wand. Harry was faster. He raised his wand to stun the Death Eater, but no words came from his mouth.

Harry pulled his arm across his face to protect himself futilely, having been silenced from behind. Pain erupted in his forearm as the Death Eater's curse hit and cracked the bone in his arm. The next thing he knew he was on his back with the Death Eater who had hid him with the bone shattering curse looming over him triumphantly.

The Death Eater tore off his mask to reveal himself as Marcus Flint, ex-Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. "Nighty night, Potter," Flint sneered as he raised his wand.

He suddenly vanished with a pop and a black mouse landed on Harry's chest. The mouse immediately took off and Harry saw Ginny following it's movements with her wand and firing off explosive hexes. Shaking his head once again, he stood and turned around only to come face to face with O'Toole, who had blood streaming down the front of his robes.

"You're mine," O'Toole shrieked as he raised his wand. "Avada-"

Harry reacted with the only non-verbal spell he was confident in. _Levicorpus_! As soon as he finished the thought, which was much quicker than O'Toole shrieking the long Killing Curse, the Death Eater's body flipped end over end, leaving O'Toole struggling upside down.

_Liberacorpus_, Harry thought quickly as even upside down the Death Eater was pointing his wand at him. With a sickening crunch, O'Toole landed on his head in a heap.

His victory was short lived when he caught a glimpse of one of his white robed warriors taking a cutting hex to the arm and falling to the ground. The Death Eater who had administered the hex raised his wand for another spell when Harry acted. He leapt a few feet and drove his shoulder into the Death Eater's side, sending them both sprawling and colliding painfully with the bar counter.

The Death Eater caught his bearings faster and snapped a kick from his back into Harry's side.

With the wind knocked out of him he rolled over to his hands and knees gasping for breath. Pain shot through his arm as he attempted to put weight on his broken forearm, but that was the least of his worries.

Harry's assailant was on his feet now and with another kick to the chest dropped the Gryffindor to the ground. "Game over," he said as he reached down and grabbed a handful of Harry's hair.

With another shot of pain rippling through his head as he was pulled groggily to his feet, Harry feebly tried to stand on his feet. The Death Eater pulled back with one of his hands and caught Harry's chin with solid right hook that sent him sprawling out on the ground again.

Harry reached for his wand with his right hand as the Death Eater came up behind him again. He rolled to his back and saw the Death Eater's boot raised over his face. Harry flinched and closed his eyes.

The blow never came. A white robed figure had grabbed the Death Eater from behind and physically thrown him over the counter and into the alcohol supply. Numerous bottles from one of the shelves fell to the floor with loud crashes. Others hit the downed Death Eater.

"Alright, Harry?" Neville asked grimly.

Harry quickly gestured to his throat, hoping that Neville would remove the silencing charm.

With a wave of his wand, Neville removed the hex just as Harry saw a Death Eater standing near the giant front window fire a red curse towards his friend's back.

Neville gasped as the curse hit him between the shoulder blades and collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain as the Cruciatus Curse lit his nerves on fire.

Grabbing his wand with his good arm, he stood up, anger coursing through him. He pointed the wand at the Death Eater, who from across the room was still torturing Neville. "_Reducto_!" he snapped in anger.

The curse caught the Cruciatus using Death Eater in the chest and pitched him backwards through the window, which shattered on impact. Through the shattering glass Harry could see the large hole in the Death Eater's chest before he fell out of sight outside the bar.

Not feeling guilty at all, Harry saw Neville slowly staggering to his feet. However, there were still three Death Eaters in the middle of the room actively firing curses. It appeared that many of the others had already fled or been incapacitated. Two members of the Order of Light where also on the ground too. One had a cut in his or her side and the other was stunned… or dead. _Don't think like that_, Harry reminded himself as he shakily pointed his wand at the group.

There was a loud crash as a bottle flew from behind the counter and hit one of the Death Eaters in the shoulder. A second and third bottle flew across the room as Harry turned to see Susan and Tom the barkeep banishing bottles of firewhisky and assorted muggle drinks at the group of Death Eaters. Apparently the Death Eater that Neville had thrown over the counter had fled the scene.

Two Order members were exchanging spells and hexes from the cover of an overturned table. One of the Death Eaters fired a Reductor Hex, causing the table to explode in a shower of broken wood and splinters. The Order members quickly scrambled backwards to find new cover.

As one Death Eater protected himself and the others from the hailstorm of bottles with shielding charms, the other two advanced forward. With the flick of his wand, one of the advancing Death Eaters caught one of Harry's Order members with a tripping jinx.

Harry knew he had to keep two Death Eaters away from the tripped Order member, who was now sprawled out on the ground, and it had to be something the third Death Eater couldn't simply stop with a shield. Without thinking it through fully, cried "_Incendio_!"

There was a bright flash of light as the floor seemingly went up in flames. _The alcohol_, Harry thought stupidly. _Oh Merlin…_

Not only did the floor around the entire area ignite into an inferno, but so did the four people caught in the general area. Screams filled the Leaky Cauldron as two of the Death Eaters rapidly threw off their burning cloaks and Apparated away.

The third Death Eater had no such luck. Alcohol had been splashed all over his body and where he was standing. He achieved third degree burns before he even noticed he was on fire.

Reacting instantly, Harry stuck out his wand. "_Accio_!" he cried, concentrating on the Order member that was caught in the spreading blaze.

As soon as the body reached him, he tore off the flaming robes as best he could with one hand, causing his own burns. "Susan!" he cried as he hoisted the Order member in his arms, which was difficult due to his own injuries. "Get them out of here!" he called to Neville, who was on his feet and already tending to the other Order members.

As soon as Susan reached Harry's side, he looked at his ring. "I see the Light!"

He spiraled into the entrance hall and landed in a heap. _Please let her be ok_, Harry thought futilely as he looked at the body he had carried back. He laid the girl on her back, noticing the shiny burns on her face and hands.

Matters got worse when other members began to appear in the hall. One in particular was bleeding rather badly and the others had numerous more minor wounds. It continued to get worse as Sarah entered the hall, hearing the commotion, looked at everyone and then screamed.

To be continued…


	9. The Troubled Mind of Harry Potter

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 9 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris for being a superb beta and Jane for the summary. AJ for being... uh... lovely?

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 9**

**The Troubled Mind of Harry Potter**

_The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves. - Ray Kroc_

The entrance hall of the Beacon was in complete chaos. There were screams, cries of pain and no one seemed to be sure what to do. No one except Harry, that is. Pointing his wand at Luna's body, Harry wordlessly cast a hovering charm and began to head to the Dining Room. Though Harry could see Ron had a large gash down one of his arms and was busy clutching his chest to stop an even more serious wound, Harry focused solely on Luna.

It was Luna's burns that Harry felt responsible for. He was the one that lit up the alcohol. He entered the Dining room and was thankful that he and the rest of the Order had taken the steps the last few days to turn it into a miniature infirmary.

He floated Luna towards the nearest bed and gently let her down, though he doubted the girl would have noticed. Luna had in fact passed out, though whether it was from the shock or the pain, Harry wasn't sure.

People bustled in behind him, and he turned around to see Ginny and Hermione helping Ron, who was looking very pale, into one of the other beds while Neville quickly ran to one of the cabinets the Order had installed on the walls.

In a daze, Harry watched Neville open the cabinet and withdraw three phials of potion that Harry and the rest of the Order had been brewing in preparation for upcoming battles. He recognized one as a blood replenishing potion, which thankfully was easy enough to make, as he leaned back with his hand to rest on the head of Luna's bed. There were voices and shouts from his friends, but he couldn't comprehend any of them.

Suddenly, pain erupted in his arm as he tried to put weight on it. Harry must have screamed, since immediately Ginny came over to him, concern on her face. She was saying something, but whatever it was, it just wasn't sinking it.

Harry say Ginny turn back to Sarah and Susan, who were running around assisting the Order as needed, and open her mouth to speak. He still felt dazed. All that mattered was that Luna and Ron were ok. He felt a tug on his good arm and looked down to see Sarah.

"Come lie down," the girl demanded while looking at him squarely in the eye.

"Why?" Harry asked, shaking his head. "I'm fine."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "You're fine? Your forearm is… is… broken badly," she choked, but continued. "There's a huge lump on the back of your head with dried blood and it looks like you've taken several spells all over your body!" She had tears in her eyes now, but she raised a hand and touched his chest. Harry yelped and visibly flinched backwards. "And you have some broken ribs, I think."

"But Ron and Luna-" Harry replied, glancing at the girl beside him. Luna was started to stir now.

"They'll be fine, but you won't be unless you lie down and let us help you," she said sternly.

Harry shook his head. "They're way worse than I am!" he replied hotly. _Why don't they understand?_

Sarah sighed and drew her wand. "Stupefy!"

The last thing Harry remembered was having Sarah's wand pointed at his chest and a flash of fire somewhere behind her.

* * *

Groggily, Harry opened his eyes. He was staring up at the ceiling in his own room. Groaning, he tried to sit up. Pain shot through his chest as he did, forcing him to immediately lie back down. He simply groaned again, feeling as if he had gotten into a fight with a train and lost. The back of his head was throbbing and he could feel the bruise on his chin. There was a soft tingling in his left forearm and he was vaguely wondering how he had managed to stand up and walk with his ribs in such a condition. _Then again I wasn't really in a perfect state of mind…_

"Oh good, you're awake. Hermione and Ginny said you'd be up sometime soon," Susan said as Harry heard the door to his room creak open. There was a rattle of glass on what sounded like a metal tray.

"Yeah," Harry replied somewhat bitterly. He was frustrated that he couldn't stop staring up at his ceiling and actually see what was going on.

Susan set a tray down on the nightstand beside Harry's bed, which he could see out of the corner of his eye. Susan gave him a soft smile. "A bright ray of sunshine, you are," she commented as she grabbed a small flask off of the tray. "Now then, are you going to take this or will I have to get Sarah to force you?" she asked with a grin.

Harry rolled his eyes. He didn't really see anything amusing about the situation. He then remembered something important from prior to however long ago he was stunned. "Ron! Luna! How are they?" he asked suddenly, trying to sit up again and getting a painful reminder.

"Calm down," Susan said as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "They're doing fine. I'm not even sure how you guys had all those potions…"

"We have to. Well, you can see why we'd had to, anyways. We have the entire day to devote to the war against Voldemort. Besides training we also have to make sure we stay alive," Harry explained as he struggled to look over at Susan. "Now… how are they? Seriously."

Harry heard Susan sigh. "Ron's cuts have been healed, but whatever cutting hex they hit him with also damaged his ribs. He's kind of in the same situation as you, but he can move around."

"And Luna?" Harry prompted her. He still wanted to know what happened to her since he was the one that caused her burns. While he was sure some of the others wouldn't blame him for it, it was solely what Luna thought.

"Whatever charms those robes had put on them, it saved her," Susan said flatly. "She has second degree burns on her cheeks, chin and hands. Anywhere else seems to be fine. The Weasley twins sent over some burn salve just this morning. It'll take a while for the burns to fade, and Hermione suspects that they might never fade entirely… there are limits to magical medicine too, of course."

He let out a sigh of relief and managed to let a small smile slip onto his face. "Don't tell Madam Pomfrey, but magical medicine isn't too hard." He became more somber. "Why was she unconscious when I summoned her though?"

"The last thing she remembers is being trapped in a wall of flames. That's enough to put anyone into shock," Susan said with a sigh. "That's the best reason we could come up with anyways." She leaned over and looked at him critically. "Now then, as for _you_-"

"Me?" he asked.

Susan rolled her eyes. "Yes, you. If you hadn't realized you have some injuries too. Your ribs are broken," she began flatly. "I'm sure you realized that. Now I know you were walking around earlier, but you yourself were in a form of a shock, though not as severe as Luna's. You moving around actually made them worse. You've got a mild concussion and the bones in your arm were only finished being mended early this morning."

"So, better than usual?" Harry quipped with a boyish grin. To him it didn't made how bad his own injuries were as long as long as the rest of his friends were fine.

"Funny, I've heard that you rarely get more than a few scratches," Susan replied, stifling a laugh. "Anyways you'll have to take these two potions. One is to help heal your ribs so that they'll be repiared in a few days. Unfortunately we couldn't give you that one while we were keeping you asleep with a sleeping draught. The other is your standard pain relieving potion."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "And just how long was I being kept asleep?" he asked with an edge on his voice.

Susan replied, ignoring his tone. "Two days. Hermione and Ginny were putting your arm back together with bone mending charms instead of skelegro, which you actually don't have here. You're lucky that Sarah and I found this bone mending potion while we were looking up burn cures for Luna, otherwise you'd have been out for a few more days while we mended your ribs with spells too."

Resisting only slightly, Harry awkwardly took and drank both potions with Susan's help. It was quite difficult that he could sit up and he ended up basically having the two flasks poured down his throat while he tried not to gag or choke. Naturally they both tasted absolutely awful. "And since when did you become my personal healer?" Harry asked.

"Since I saw the six of you fight and realized I wouldn't be able to do half that well. If your daughter can help around giving potions and checking on people, I can do it too. If I can't actually help you fight there are definitely other things I can be doing," Susan explained. "I also never got a chance to thank you for coming to rescue me."

"It was nothing, honestly. We would have done the same for anyone in your situation," Harry said, blushing slightly. No one was sure why, but Harry never did take compliments or thanks well.

Susan winced slightly, which Harry caught. "No no, I'm truly grateful to be alive," she said defensively. "What I meant is that… well, the attack on me wasn't the only thing that happened that day," she said as she disappeared from Harry's limited view.

Harry heard rustling of paper and parchment before Susan laid a stack of muggle newspapers and a few editions of the _Daily Prophet_ beside him on the bed.

"I'll let you read these by yourself. Ginny said that you'd probably take it pretty hard and that you'd want to be alone anyways. I'll go tell Ginny and Sarah that you're awake, though. They've been checking in on you nearly every hour for the last two days except for when Hermione and I made them sleep or when I volunteered to give you your potions," Susan said grimly. Just judging by the look on Susan's face, Harry knew the news was definitely not going to be good.

Hearing the door close and the footsteps of her descending down the stairwell, Harry reached for the top news article. It was a copy of the _Prophet_ from the day after they had rescued Susan. He groaned loudly after reading the headline

_GANG WAR AT THE LEAKY CAULDRON_

_By Rita Skeeter_

_Yesterday at around noon, there was a most peculiar battle at the bar, better known as the Leaky Cauldron, which marks the entrance from muggle London into Diagon Alley. You-Know-Who's Death Eaters met up with white robed figures in the Leaky Cauldron and proceeded to have a five minute chaotic battle which resulted in the eventual destruction of the entire establishment._

_This reporter managed to secure an interview with one of the two possible witnesses to this event. Tom Edwards, owner of the Leaky Cauldron, recalled this about the event in question._

_"I was simply wiping down some glasses and minding my own business when this girl, probably around sixteen or seventeen, comes barging in and uses my fireplace to call someone. Then she immediately comes over and says we have to hide 'cause some Death Eaters are on their way. Naturally I didn't believe a word of it, but then I saw them coming down the road. We head to the backroom in time as the Death Eaters walk in about the same time as this other gang comes in._

_I can watch what was going on through this mirror I had put back there that allows me to see the rest of the bar for when I have to go back there to get some stuff. These white robed guys and the Death Eaters talk for a bit and then one of the white robed people attacks first. I don't know what the guy did, but it basically busts up the Death Eater's face real nicely. Everything happened real fast after that. Eventually this girl convinces me we got to go help the white robed people, and I figure that might be a good idea since the Death Eaters look like they're winning, you know?_

_So we head back out and start banishing these bottles of liquor at the Death Eaters. Then one of the white robed guys lights up the whole damn place with some fire, torching three Death Eaters and even one of his own guys. Then they all disappear in a matter of seconds including the girl I was with. I ain't even sure who the bad guys were there. Thanks to the white robed anarchists I don't even have a business to work in anymore."_

_I personally am not sure why to make of these white robed figures either. While they were certainly fighting You-Know-Who's forces, they don't seem to be helping either. Aurors certainly do not cause such damage and devastation while protecting the Wizarding world. It is clear from the act of arson that these white robed figures are simply another faction trying to cause damage and ruin lives._

Harry stopped reading. He had already read enough, but he knew that he shouldn't be surprised by the outcome. In an impartial view, the article was exactly right. Here was another group concealing their identities, fighting serious battles with others and even causing immense amounts of property damage.

He put the paper back on top of the pile as he heard rushed footsteps in the hallways outside. He heard the door burst open again and at least two people enter the room. Before he had a chance to see who it was, there was a set of lips firmly pressed to his and the sweet smell he had come to associate with Ginny flood his nose. Harry could barely breathe under his girlfriend's relentless assault, but he surely wasn't complaining. He could taste the strawberry lip gloss that she was wearing more and more often. As Ginny pulled away for air, Harry sighed and leaned back into his pillow. His frustration over Rita Skeeter's article had left him for a brief moment.

"Don't ever scare us like that again," Ginny said, though her voice was only filled with concern.

"Huh?" he stammered, but Ginny leaned down and kissed him on the lips again, effectively silencing his retort.

Ginny pulled back up. "You refused to be helped," she said before leaning down to kiss him yet again. She continued speaking, just a few inches from his lips. "And because you kept moving around you made yourself worse," she leaned back down again. "Sarah had to stun you, but you had already made your ribs worse," she added after coming up for air once more. "I'm just glad you're getting better and we healed your arm correctly."

"A much better job than Lockhart, I must say," Harry said with a sheepish grin as he leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. Even the action of moving forward caused his ribs to ache, though it was far from the shooting pain prior to the pain relief potion.

"Can you just promise me you'll stop saying you're fine when you're clearly not?" Ginny said with an attempted glare, but it faltered when she leaned down to lock lips with him again.

Harry flashed a grin. "But why should I when I get treated like this when I don't? I actually _like_ this treatment-"

Ginny cut him off with an actual glare, but it soon broke down into a warm smile. "You're asking for it, Potter," she replied in mock seriousness.

"And what are you going to do to a poor injured soul like me? Seriously, though. If I ever act like that again I give you full rights to kick my bloody arse," he said, going up to meet her lips again despite the ache in his chest.

"I won't need to," Ginny stated when the kiss had broken up. "I'll let Sarah do it instead. You were out for a few hours before we even started needing sleeping draughts. I guess you upset her enough to cause her stunner to have some serious power behind it."

Vanishing from view, Ginny was replaced by Sarah who embraced Harry in a firm hug out of nowhere, crushing against his ribs and burying her face into his neck.

"Sarah… I… can't breathe…" he managed to sputter out between wincing at the pain and having the younger girl smother him.

Sarah pulled back after his comment, tears forming in her eyes. "You said you'd be ok."

Harry gave her a grin. "And I am, or will be soon. I told you that you can't get rid of me that easily."

"Yeah, that head of his is quite thick sometimes so it keeps him from getting seriously hurt," Ginny commented from outside of Harry's view.

Both Harry and Sarah ignored the comment, and since Harry couldn't move to hug her back he settled for ruffling the top of her hair again and shocked her hand with some static. "How have you been without me?"

"Fine I guess," Sarah replied. "It's been boring studying alone," she said, slightly put out. Harry and Sarah had taken to studying up on random spells or other useful things from the Beacon's library each evening after the Order meetings. Furthermore, Harry had begun making sure that he and Sarah did something un-war related each day. Harry knew it couldn't be healthy to spend every waking moment plotting against Voldemort.

"When my _keepers_," Harry began while trying to glare over at Ginny, "give me a clean bill of health we'll have to go do something for a day."

Sarah gave him a weak smile and nodded. While Ginny returned to his view as well.

"You'd best keep wisecracks like that to yourself, Potter, or you might just end up in a hospital bed for a lot longer," Ginny said, leaning close to him.

"Alright," he said caving under her look before leaning forward to plant another kiss on her lips. "I haven't quite gotten through this pile of reading material, but have you guys had to do any missions or head out while I was indisposed?"

Ginny shook her head. "Neville's been managing things, but nothing major has happened… considering what went on two days ago…" she traveled off and Harry noticed her eyes flicked to the pile of newspapers still sitting beside him. "I'll tell Neville to come see you in a bit after you catch up reading. He's busy brewing some replacement potions right now." She leaned down to kiss him one more time, completely driving away Harry's momentary shock at the thought of Neville willingly brewing potions.

Ginny and Sarah retreated from the room as Harry sighed somewhat sadly. He grabbed the top article again and flipped to page two, which continued Rita Skeeter's article.

_One Death Eater was captured by Ministry Aurors after the attack on the Leaky Cauldron, though he was suffering from third degree burns. Another was found dead with a large hole in his chest, which suggests that these white robed figures do not care if they kill or not._

_In a surprising move, the Aurors chose to ignore the Minister of Magic's direct orders and provided medical care so that they could interrogate the prisoner. While some interesting information was obtained, the Auror who suggested giving the Death Eater medical attention, one Nymphadora Tonks, has been suspended from her duties without pay._

_It appeared that while a group of ten Death Eaters were dispatched to murder Susan Bones, who has mysteriously vanished, they were also be seen around Hogsmeade. The prisoner confessed that this was to show that You-Know-Who's power stretched everywhere._

Harry stopped reading again and rolled his eyes. At the very least they had saved Susan's life and possibly stopped some people in Hogsmeade from having a heart attack. He flipped to the next page as Ginny had stated that a lot had happened. The article on this page was far more troubling than its front page counterpart.

_Mass Azkaban Breakout! You-Know-Who frees followers!_

_By Cornelius Fickle_

_You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters launched a daring daylight raid on Azkaban Fortress last afternoon. Aurors on security where entirely overwhelmed. Out of the fifty Aurors on Azkaban detail, only three survived. Henry White, Rachel Ross and Daniel Stanley all managed to survive the vicious raid and gave detailed accounts of what had happened._

_Auror White was currently off duty when the raid began on the so called 'Azkaban Docks'. Apparently when Auror White returned he found the entire place demolished and all the boats used to ferry across to Azkaban destroyed but one. Upon seeing the ruins of the tower, he immediately searched to see if any of his colleagues were still alive._

_Sadly his search proved futile and he returned to the Ministry to request reinforcements. When the proper equipment was sent to Azkaban Docks to head over to the Fortress itself, it was a gruesome sight. The entire Auror team was piled in the courtyard, dead. It wasn't until a thorough search of the Fortress revealed the two other survivors. Aurors Ross and Stanley were found in a restricted area of the Fortress, badly beaten and barely alive. They were immediately rushed to St. Mungos where they are currently undergoing treatment._

_What was most unusual about this raid on Azkaban were the few prisoners that were found murdered along with the Auror detail. Mundungus Fletcher, a small time thief with supposed connections to the deceased Albus Dumbledore, was founder murdered in his cell for unknown reasons. One of the Aurors who found Fletcher remarked that it was 'obviously the work of the Killing Curse.'_

_The most troubling of the prisoner murders was Lucius Malfoy, who was one of You-Know-Who's own Death Eaters. The Aurors themselves were very puzzled by this murder, though they did note that there were 'numerous cuts and other signs of torture' on Malfoy's body._

That was enough for Harry to go through a complete mix of emotions. There was anger, sadness and even a large jolt of fear. One of his first questions was how White was still on duty as an Auror when Moody had clearly gone to the Minister to have White removed. There was sadness for all the Aurors that had lost their lives, and though it was selfish, he was more upset for Ross, the young Auror he had met at Azkaban and was a good friend of Tonks.

Most importantly, though, was the fear Harry had after reading the paragraph regarding Lucius Malfoy. Harry knew why Lucius had been killed, but the main part was the fact that Lucius was tortured and, if Harry knew Voldemort well enough, had his mind picked apart by Legilimency.

_He knows_, Harry panicked. _He knows that we know about the Horcruxes_. This detail was immense. Harry figured he had a pretty decent chance at tracking down all of the Horcruxes if Voldemort didn't know they were being searched for or destroyed, but now that he knew how could Harry hope to succeed? Those Horcruxes could be moved… or could they? Nagini was always by Voldemort's side and he doubted very much that he would walk into Hogwarts right away, but then again he could always have his student contacts do things for him. Of course, neither Harry nor Voldemort knew where the Locket was so that one was still a wildcard. This left only one Horcrux that Voldemort could move. Things had just become exceedingly more difficult.

Harry began to flip through and scan other pages of the _Prophet_ until he came upon a page about the Malfoys.

_Missing Malfoys_

_By Larry Jenkins_

_When going to report the death of Lucius Malfoy to his wife, Narcissa, and son, Draco, Ministry officials found their manor ransacked. No sign of either Mrs. Malfoy or the younger Mr. Malfoy were found in the chaotic environment and the Ministry has been unable to locate either of them._

_A well known tactic employed by You-Know-Who over sixteen years ago was threatening the lives of family members in exchange for serving. It is possible that Narcissa and Draco Malfoy were murdered along with Lucius, but it is unknown._

_If anyone has any knowledge of…_

While Harry definitely did not have any love for the Malfoys, he couldn't help but feel slightly sympathetic towards Draco. The youngest Malfoy had been put in an extremely hard position during his enter last year at Hogwarts. In a way, it was a burden similar to the one that Harry felt was placed upon him by the Prophecy. The only reason he felt the least bit sympathetic towards Draco is that the Slytherin had been unable to follow through with killing Dumbledore. _No, he left that to Snape_, Harry thought bitterly, though at the same time his eyes scanned another small article tucked away into the corner of one of the last pages.

It was so small it didn't even have a title, but Harry knew the last thing they Minister would want to do with this particular murder was advertise it.

_Elphias Doge, 56, was founded dead in the middle of Knockturn alley shortly after 3 PM yesterday afternoon. The circumstances of Mr. Doge's death were very suspect and Ministry Aurors are currently investigating the possibility of foul play. Apparently the Ministry does not realize that there are several witnesses that say they saw the Dark Mark floating in the sky about Knockturn alley which lead to Mr. Doge's discovery in the first place._

That was all that was said. The Ministry definitely didn't want to draw attention to the fact that Elphias Doge was a member of the Order of the Phoenix. If there was too much of an investigation there might be some linking between the Minister and the Order members. It seemed that only the Minister and maybe a few members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were aware of the Order of the Phoenix's alliance.

Harry heard the door creaked and he waited a few moments for the figure to walk across the room to his bedside.

"Ginny said you wanted to talk to me," Neville said as he stood over Harry's body. He seemed nervous as if he was being called in to talk to the principal or headmaster of a school.

Nodding as best he could, Harry strained to see Neville. "I've just been reading some of this… news," Harry said slowly after finding his mouth had gone dry. The events of the Azkaban article continually playing through his mind. "How on earth did Moody not get White removed from Azkaban?" he blurted out angrily when Neville said nothing in favor if shifting his feet idly.

"Well, I can answer that at least," Neville said cautiously, not wanting to agitate Harry anymore. He quickly realized there was no way around it, though. "Your request to see the Minister about Lucius Malfoy was denied and an owl was sent to you while you were knocked out. It was signed by Umbridge saying that the Minister didn't have time for 'such rubbish'."

"Umbridge!" Harry exclaimed loudly. "But she was being investigated by Scrimgeour himself! There was no possible way for her to get out of that!"

Harry heard Neville sigh. "Yeah that's what I thought too, but she's back as Senior Undersecretary. I can't only guess that Moody was stopped by Umbridge just like you were."

This is was definitely an answer that Harry didn't want to hear, but it didn't really matter anymore. Lucius was already dead and thus there was no point in meeting the Minister at the current time. His hatred of Dolores Umbridge intensified, though. Another thought jumped into his mind when he was thinking about how quickly they'd have to go for the Horcruxes. "Did McGonagall write back?"

"Yeah, it came with our Hogwarts letters..." Neville said, trailing off. "She said that you'll need permission from the Board of Governors to enter Hogwarts when you aren't a student there. My Gran is on the Board, though and that meeting is coming up," Neville added quickly, visibly seeing Harry's frustration. "We could go convince her and the rest of the board to let us go there to look for Horcruxes, but we'd need a plausible reason."

"And we have none," Harry said, his voice dropping. Nothing seemed to be going right at all.

"Actually…" Neville hesitated again.

"What?" Harry asked immediately.

"Err, I'll let you talk that over with her later," Neville said. "It's not really any of my business."

Frowning, Harry nodded. "Have there been anymore attacks since, well," he checked his watch, "two days ago?"

"No," Neville said, finally being able to report some good news. "He did enough that one day."

"Yeah," Harry said as he raised his hand and began counting off his fingers. "Planned to murder Susan and intimidate Hogsmeade, murdered Elphias Doge, murdered over fifty Aurors, broke out a bunch of followers and managed to learn of our search for his Horcruxes. Yeah I think that's quite enough," he continued bitterly.

"Err," Neville said as Harry heard him rustle through the pile of papers that he hadn't read yet on his bed. "You never got to the muggle paper, did you?"

Harry sighed and knew this would be nothing good, either. He reached over and took the newspaper from Neville. He didn't have to look hard at all.

_FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON PRIME MINISTER BLAIR! 7 PERISH IN ATTACK!_

_In broad daylight an assassination attempt was made on newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair's life. Men in black cloaks were reported to have somehow infiltrated the Minister's offices wielding curious weapons of unknown origin. The terrorists proceeded to attack the Prime Minister's secretary and general staff before attempting to gain entrance to the Minister's own offices._

_Details are few and far between, but one very popular story from the staff inside the building is that one of the Minister's personal staff, a man by the name of Kingsley Shacklebolt, faced the attackers alone. He perished in the attack, but his attempt at subduing the attacking force gave Minister Blair the time he needed to escape._

_Minister Blair is now being held by MI5 at an undisclosed location for his own security while the investigation is in full swing._

_No terrorists groups have claimed responsibility for the attempt on the Minister's life, but it is still quite early. The MI5 are asking for all assistance in tracking down those responsible and has even gone as far as to set up a telephone hotline for tips or information._

_The funerals are scheduled…_

Harry crumpled the paper up angrily. _Damn, Kingsley too_, he thought has he slammed the ball of paper down beside him.

"There's more," Neville said meekly.

Grudgingly, Harry unfolded the news paper and flipped past the first few pages which were solely about the attack on the Prime Minister's life. The second one was certainly more confusing, but definitely not any less angering to read.

_CONTINUED NORTHERN DISAPPEARANCES_

_Two more small fishing villages on the northern coast of Scotland have become the latest victims in the terrifying trend that has swept the British Isles. The entire population of both these towns has mysteriously disappeared much like all of the previous towns affected._

_In addition to the two fishing villages, two squads from the military forces deployed in the area have also disappeared under similar circumstances, though their equipment and vehicles have also disappeared. All civilian disappearances are merely the people themselves with none of their possessions._

_In response to this new development, the Prime Minister has issued a state of emergency for the north regions._

That was all Harry needed. He sighed deeply and just lay back down against his pillow, unsure of what to do. Voldemort was certainly moving fast. In a single day he had killed two members of the Order of the Phoenix, fifty or so Aurors and released all of his imprisoned followers. Things were just falling apart.

Neville left shortly after, sensing Harry's somber and brooding mood. Harry himself wanted to be alone, but he was checked in on rather soon by Ron and Hermione. While Hermione decided she was going to prepare them both dinner, the boys played a silent game of chess. It was mainly a diversion on Ron and Hermione's part to relax Harry a bit, though they both felt exactly the same way upon reading the same news articles.

Eventually, halfway through eating dinner with Ron alone, Harry decided he had enough of losing at chess and talking about Quidditch. The only thing that actually relaxed him in anyway were Ron's proclamations that by tomorrow he would be right as rain and, should he ever meet the Death Eater that had given him his wounds, extract revenge.

Eventually the two of them began a speculative list on all known Death Eaters and then general assumptions on how many unknown members there were.

"Ron, you can't just assume that every Slytherin from our year and above is a Death Eater," Harry said with some annoyance at the latest string of Ron's suggestions.

"You said it yourself, mate. They all left with Zabini and you said you were sure _he_ was one," Ron explained with a frown on his face.

Harry was glad at least that he could sit up now as it allowed him to actually look at the people he was talking to. "Yeah, but Pansy left with Zabini too and we can't be sure that they're Death Eaters. I suppose since I was right about Malfoy being one Pansy, Zacharias and Nott are most likely Death Eaters now too. That doesn't mean that all of them are Death Eaters. That other girl, Greengrass, I think, didn't seem to want any part in attacking us."

"Typical Slytherin cowardice," Ron snorted with a defiant look on his face. "If she was sure that Nott and Smith would win she'd have been helping them."

"Well, then she's smarter than the rest of them," Harry sighed. "We totally had them outnumbered. It isn't her fault that Nott is a complete idiot."

Ron gave a small laugh. "Being outnumbered seems to be our specialty, though."

"Gryffindors forward," Harry said with a nod. "Still, I think Greengrass and probably some other Slytherins aren't Death Eaters, or if they are probably don't want to be them. It's not like they can just say they don't want to be when the majority of them are all enthusiastic about signing on up."

There was a grunt from the redhead, which Harry had come to known as a sign of his defeat in an argument. With a small smile Harry scratched some more names down on the parchment he was using.

Things really didn't look good at all. By Harry's calculation, the Order of the Phoenix had around fifteen members left. His own Order had seven, or nine with the Weasley twins. Harry wasn't sure how many Aurors the Ministry had, but he figured that losing fifty was definitely not a small group of their overall number. By their count there should be around forty Death Eaters at the very least, and then of course there was the fact that people were still flocking to Voldemort's side since Dumbledore's death. There was also the unknown factor. Harry and Ron didn't know how many Death Eaters there were before the fall of Dumbledore. There were still Death Eaters around that Harry didn't know were Death Eaters.

Then of course they had to add in the Dementors and a decent amount of giants and werewolves that Voldemort had successfully recruited. Lastly, there was the whole weapon or whatever Voldemort was using to make the population of whole towns disappear.

"Bugger," was all that Ron managed to say as they tallied the numbers up.

There was a creak from the door and the two boys both looked up to see Sarah peering in holding some pieces of parchment.

"I guess I'll go before Hermione comes and starts complaining that I didn't take my ruddy potions," Ron said as he got up and headed out of the room. It was merely a covert exit so that Sarah wouldn't have to talk in front of him. In some ways, Ron was in fact maturing.

"What do you have there?" Harry asked, trying to peek at the parchment in his daughter's hand as the younger girl stood nervously at his bedside.

"Our Hogwarts letters came," Sarah started slowly, looking extremely nervous. Harry noticed this right away.

"Sarah, I've told you that you can come to me and talk to me about anything," he said as he tried again unsuccessfully to see what the younger girl had in her hand. "Well, almost anything," he joked, giving her a reassuring grin as he remember a certain conversation they had a few weeks back.

"I want to go back to Hogwarts," Sarah blurted out. She recoiled in horror of what Harry might say.

Whatever Harry was expecting her to say, that wasn't it. "Uh…" was all he could manage for a moment before his brain reconnected. "Are you sure?"

The girl nodded. "At first I didn't want to go back at all, but then when all the letters came and Luna got her OWL results I remembered how much I loved it."

Harry winced and sighed. He figured he'd better be completely honest. "It's going to be dangerous, you know. Last year you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time in addition to being a muggleborn. This year they'll be specifically looking for you. Everyone knows I adopted you and they'll use you to get to me…"

"Luna says she'll go with me," Sarah replied, looking hopefully at him. "We're in the same house so we can watch out for each other."

Smiling slightly, Harry replied. "I'm pretty sure Luna wasn't planning on going back. That's what we decided before we left last year, anyways."

Sarah nodded, but continued to get more and more enthusiastic. "But then when I told her I wanted to go back she said that maybe she could go back as well to keep an eye on any of the kids who are Death Eaters too." Harry couldn't help but smile at the way she was getting excited.

"Well I'll have to talk to Luna, but just because you want to keep an eye on them doesn't mean it's any safer. If anything bad looks like it's going to happen I'll have to take you out, you know," Harry said, trying to suppress his amusement and act serious.

"Yeah, I know. I can't wait to take Defense Against the Dark Arts. I've learned loads of stuff since-" the excitement momentarily derailed as she fully remembered the circumstances to lead her to living with Harry.

Harry reached around her waist and pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on her shoulder and looking down at the parchment in her lap. "So, are you going to tell me what that is?" he asked softly, trying to change the subject.

"Hogwarts permission form," she said sadly.

He raised an eyebrow. "They've never had those before," he commented. If there had been such forms, his Uncle Vernon would most likely have never signed any.

"You need them this year since the Board might close the school. There was a note saying that they needed these to be sent to see if there would even be enough people interested in going," Sarah explained as she passed Harry the form.

Harry quickly signed it handed it back to her. "You can see if Hedwig wants a job," he suggested as he ruffled Sarah's hair.

Sarah nodded and silently got up and left the room. Harry had learned that when she mourned it was best to let her do so alone. The few times Harry had tried to talk to her about it were painfully awkward. However, he had a sneaking suspicion that Sarah was talking to Luna about it. Given how a single comment from Luna had helped him put Sirius' death in some perspective, he figured that he shouldn't interfere.

* * *

Later that evening, despite the objections by Ginny and Susan, Harry had walked down several flights of stairs and entered the living room for their Order meeting.

Harry had just finished a rather odd talk with Luna, but then again all of their talks were rather odd. Luna had informed him that she would go to Hogwarts to watch over Sarah and gain any information on possible Death Eater students. Harry was quite sure that while the bulk of student Death Eaters wouldn't be returning, Voldemort would be stupid not have a few there and no one ever said that Voldemort was stupid.

Hermione wasn't present at the Inner Circle's meeting. She was busy getting Susan started on learning Occlumency. Once Susan had mastered Occlumency, Harry would fill her in with some more important secrets, such as the Horcruxes. Since being taken to the Beacon, Susan had immediately taken the role of healer upon herself. She had already been studying all of the healer books they had purchased earlier as well as learned to brew many of the potions. Harry had set her up in contact with Fred and George to deal with all the potions supplies that they needed.

While talking to both Sarah and Luna had served as a decent distraction for the torrent of bad news that he seemed to be learning, Harry was very agitated by the time he arrived down at the meeting. One of the things that immediately annoyed him was that no one else seemed to be worrying. Perhaps this was because they had a few extra days to mull over all the information he had just learned in the afternoon.

"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked with an exasperated sigh. He ran his hands nervously through his hair.

"Continue on doing what we've normally been doing?" Ginny suggested, not quite sure about what he meant.

"Oh that's working _really_ well," Harry snapped back.

When none one else replied to his comment, Harry continued resentfully. "Two Order members dead, around fifty Aurors, Voldemort knows about our Horcrux search, shall I go on?" When no one replied again he added in "Oh and I'm probably the world's worst leader."

"Now don't go that far-" Ron started, but Harry cut him off again.

"I will go that far, because it's the truth," Harry said angrily. "Look how bloody well I got us injured at the Leaky Cauldron. We could have just waited and ambushed them, but oh no, the great Harry Potter wanted to go and intimidate them and got two of his friends badly injured."

"The cloak you gave me protected me and saved my life," Luna informed him. "I told you that a few minutes ago." The Ravenclaw had lost her normal dreamy state.

"Yeah and yet I let up all that alcohol without thinking at all. Voldemort's winning people and we're still no closer to finding that Horcruxes than we were before. We have two weeks before September First and we can't very well search Hogwarts for Horcruxes until the school opens," his anger was increasing as he panicked, thinking about it again.

"We're doing the best we can," Ginny tried again, almost pleading with him.

"WELL IT BLOODY WELL ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH," Harry yelled angrily. "VOLDEMORT IS _WINNING_! HE'S ACTUALLY WINNING!"

Harry looked around to see the shocked phases of everyone else. They began to look down at their hands or the table, not speaking. Even seemingly impossible to faze Luna looked quite shocked. He immediately felt guilty and ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry," he said as he got up. "It's just that... that for some reason I didn't expect it and it seems so overwhelming," he finished as he exited the room.

He only returned well into the night. Harry had spent some time simply walking around the town even took in a rather horrible movie at the cinema. When he returned he found that no one was awake so he simply went to bed, knowing full well that'd he be apologizing for his out burst in the morning. He supposed that while his anger and frustration had been justified, taking it out on his friends was not. They were, after all, the ones that were standing beside him to actually fight Voldemort.

The main thing he realized as he was trying to sleep was that no one had left him any pain relief potion for his ribs and no matter how hard he tried he could not seem to open the cabinets used to store their medical potions. He sighed and simply tried to get some sleep.

* * *

A few days later Harry was given a clean bill of health. This was a good thing because right now he was entering one of the higher levels of the Ministry for the Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting. All students and their parents or guardians were allowed to attend, but that was it. A ministry official was on hand at the door to the meeting hall, flanked by two Aurors, and had a clipboard hovering before him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, but this meeting is for students only. I have already heard many such board members whispering about you not attending," the official said without looking at the clipboard hovering a foot in front of him.

Harry fought the urge to sigh. "You'd best check again then. I'm not attending myself, but my daughter is. I believe that means I am allowed in."

The official looked at him for a moment before flipping through the parchment pieces on the clipboard. "Ah yes, I didn't realize that you had decided to send your daughter. My apologies."

After once again fighting the urge to tell the man that he didn't in fact choose anything and that it was Sarah's choice, he entered the room.

It was a simple meeting hall with a raised platform area in the front with many regular chairs along the front of the room for the Board members. Harry quickly spotted Mrs. Longbottom, who looked at him, but nothing more.

He moved amongst the small sea of chairs to find a spot to sit, but it appeared that he was one of the last arrivals. He was about to give up hope and just stand in the back when a voice called out to him.

"Harry! Over here!"

Harry followed the familiar voice until he found Rose Bidwell. What surprised him is that she was seated beside the man Harry had seen in Scrimgeour's office and then later in Diagon Alley when he was facing Nott and Zacharias.

"Err, hi, Rose," he greeted her awkwardly as he was still surprised to see the other young man.

"Oh, this is my brother Anthony. He works for the Department of Mysteries, but he only graduated from Hogwarts two years ago, but got accepted right away," Rose introduced the two men proudly. "This is Harry Potter, who apparently knows you."

Harry and Anthony Bidwell shook hands. Harry was surprised he didn't notice a relation sooner. Anthony had similar facial features and the exact same shade of hair color. The eyes, though, were identical. Harry felt like kicking himself.

"I suppose you're here because your daughter wants to go back?" Anthony asked him.

Harry nodded. "Despite what happened at the end of year she wants to go back. I guess she loved it that much."

"I'm going back too," Rose said happily. "It was either that or stay home alone most of the time."

"It'll probably still be dangerous," Harry cautioned again.

"The World outside of Hogwarts is hardly safe either," Anthony added in with a slight smile. "I don't think it makes too much of a difference anymore. Once people realize that hiding isn't going to work maybe they'll fight back."

They talked for quite a while before the Board meeting actually got underway. Harry immediately took a liking to Anthony Bidwell. In fact, he had asked both of them to help him with a slight problem he was facing, but hadn't told anyone. The Bidwells immediately agreed to help him and told them that they'd contact him later.

The board meeting itself was simple. The Board unanimously voted to keep Hogwarts open. Harry was quite relieved that he didn't get dragged into the debate and Sarah's return to Hogwarts wasn't publicized. His presence had been acknowledged by someone on the Board that Harry had never met before. She was a dark skinned woman with long, sleek black hair. The most curious thing about her was her crystal blue eyes. In short, she was beautiful despite being somewhat past her prime, in Harry's opinion.

Harry still had to somehow gain permission to be allowed to be at Hogwarts without attending. Strict new security policies were going to be in place this year along with Aurors on guard the whole time. Harry was rather relieved to know that a few Order of the Phoenix members would be there as well and that McGonagall had in fact been voted to retain position as Headmistress.

He approached Augusta Longbottom with trepidation. Harry wasn't sure how the rest of the Board would react to his request. Neville had sent an owl to his grandmother ahead of time and let them know of his plans, leaving out the key details of why they needed to spend time at Hogwarts. The plan was for Mrs. Longbottom to introduce Harry to some key members of their board and get their support. From there it should be easy, or so she said.

Mrs. Longbottom led him up to a small circle of Board members once the meeting was finished. She quickly began to introduce Harry to the other three people there.

There was Mrs. Zabini, who was the stunning lady with crystal blue eyes, Ernest Andrews, who was the Head Board member, and Frederick Shaw. Ernest was the first to shake Harry's hand and tell him how glad he was to finally meet the person who seemed to be head first in every single Hogwarts crisis.

"So, Mr. Potter, I hear that you wish to be allowed permission to enter Hogwarts this year whenever you please?" Ernest asked. He was an elderly man of about eighty that walked about with a cane due to a bad limp. Shaw looked eager to see his reply. Shaw was a man of, Harry assumed, about forty, but he could have passed for younger. With blonde hair and a decently built body, the main simply looked intimidating.

Harry nodded, but before he could even open his mouth, Mrs. Zabini stepped up closer to him and gazed at him with her sparkling eyes. "But why, Mr. Potter? You aren't attending yourself." Harry noticed that Shaw nodded in agreement to this.

"Because last year my daughter was attacked by a group of students who were trying to show off for Voldemort," Harry replied soundly. He watched as Ernest and Shaw flinched, but surprisingly Mrs. Zabini did not. "She's nervous about going back and I'd like to be able to check up on her whenever she needs me. I don't think that's too much to ask."

The group mulled this over for a few minutes before turning back to Harry. "I'm afraid these circumstances aren't acceptable, Mr. Potter," Ernest told him while refusing to make eye contact.

Harry was shocked. Ernest seemed like he would actually support him.

"Just a minute, Ernest," Mrs. Zabini said. She seemed rather frustrated. "I believe our mock vote there was two in favor and two against. You cannot simply reject the offer right now. It has to go to the entire Board." This shocked Harry even more. Given the fact that Mrs. Zabini was the mother of Blaise Zabini, a Death Eater if Harry ever saw one, he had hardly expected her to support him.

_Did she just wink at me?_ Harry blinked as Mrs. Zabini turned back to the rest of the Board, but not before giving him what was unmistakably a wink. There was something quite unsettling about this whole situation.

"Fine," Ernest said grumpily. "We shall put it to a vote. Mr. Potter, you'll receive our decision by tomorrow via Owl post. There is nothing more for us to discuss." The elderly man turned on his heel and headed back towards the other Board members with Shaw in hot pursuit.

"I guess that's that," Harry muttered.

"Don't worry, Mr. Potter, it'll all work out," Mrs. Zabini said, giving him a very unnerving grin.

Harry retreated back to where the Bidwells were waiting for him. After explaining that he wasn't sure if he'd get permission or not, the group filed out of the room with everyone that had straggled behind for one reason or another.

They rounded a few corners and headed towards the lifts when something caught Harry's attention out of the corner of his eye. Mrs. Zabini was standing in the shadows of a short hallway beckoning to come closer. He bid farewell to the Bidwells for now and cautiously entered the small hallway.

Mrs. Zabini immediately cornered him against the wall and gave him another unnerving smile. Perhaps if Harry hadn't been continuing thinking that she was a Death Eater, he would have realized that this was the exact same look that Mrs. Zabini had given three of her previous husbands and melted their hearts with it, or at least made them succumb to some form of lust.

It was now that Harry realized her robes unfastened, giving him a good view of what she was wearing underneath. He was rather surprised to find her wearing a very form fitting dress which gave him more than a slight look at her cleavage. He gulped nervously. "Err, hello Mrs. Zabini-"

"Please, call me Mireia. We've known each other too long to be using such formalities, wouldn't you agree?" the woman said, moving ever so slightly closer.

Despite the fact that Harry wasn't even sure how she had managed to get out of the room and to this location ahead of him or the fact that he had only known her for a few minutes, he nodded. "And what is it you want?" he asked nervously. Mireia Zabini seemed to be moving awfully close to him.

"Nothing more than to make sure your request gets taken care of. _Whatever that may be_," she added rather forcefully at the end.

"Well, I'm not sure I need anything else right now, thank you," Harry said quickly and tried to slink along the wall and back to the lifts.

Mrs. Zabini was too fast for him, though. She placed a hand against the wall and blocked his escape. With her other hand she placed it on her hip, causing the robes on her right side to push away. This revealed her leg and a large split up the side of it, showing quite a lot of skin. "Are you sure?" she asked innocently, though it was more or less like a predator stalking her prey.

"Quite," Harry replied forcefully as he came to his senses. This could definitely not end well. He pushed his way past her arm.

"Perhaps shortly you'll change your mind," Mireia Zabini called after him with a certain tone to her voice.

_Not bloody likely, you ruddy black widow_, Harry thought when he was safely on a lift and heading back down to the Ministry's Apparation points. After he had told this certain section of the story to Ron, he found that the redhead couldn't stop laughing. It was bad enough that this soon became the inside joke between Ron and Neville. Harry Potter could attract women of all ages.

* * *

There was a creaking sound that woke Harry Potter up. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was only two in the morning. He groaned and rolled over onto his back and slowly opened his eyes.

Harry stared directly into a large pair of glowing yellow eyes. Screaming loudly, he closed his eyes quickly and dove to the side. All he managed was succeeding in getting his legs tangled up on his bedding which caused him to fall head first off the side of the bed. He landed with a painful thud, but continued to fight his bedding, trying to get away.

Footsteps echoed loudly in the hallway and the door to Harry's room banged out open loudly.

"Lumos!" Sarah cried. The room immediately lit up and the entrants saw Harry trying to crawl about the floor, still tangled in his sheets.

Blinking, Harry looked around the room. It was entirely vacant, save for himself and the people who had just entered. There was no basilisk, nor was there any sign of one. Something was out of place, though.

Directly above the large picture that Ginny had given him for his birthday, which portrayed a valiant hero wielding a sword and slaying a basilisk (Harry thought the picture was rather odd, but he kept it up anyways), were words painted in dark red.

_RAIDERS RULE! MARAUDERS DROOL!_

Harry glared at everyone who had just entered the room. There were three very guilty looking people who seemed to be having difficulty keeping a straight face throughout all of this. "Alright, everyone out, now," he growled. "Except for you," he added, pointing at Sarah and beckoning her to come closer. _Poor Ginny, she's chosen the wrong side_, he thought with a grin as the others had left his room.

"It looks like there is a little rebellion going on," Harry informed his daughter. "Apparently these Raiders have yet to submit to our total prank control."

"Are we going to use that idea you came up with last time?" Sarah asked eagerly.

Harry nodded. "I think it is time that Ron got a little taste of his own medicine."

Sarah grinned to herself as she headed back to her room to retrieve the Marauder's Log so that they could properly plan their assault on the Raiders.

* * *

Harry was rather lucky that Wizarding weddings were quite similar to regular weddings. He was still tired from plotting his revenge on the not-so-mysterious group of Raiders that had decided to declare total prank warfare on the Marauders. He was seriously considering having Moony come help him to give the senior Marauder some time to relive his glory days and he'd be able to ask him once this ceremony was finally over.

Bill and Fleur had opted for a larger selection of bridesmaids and groomsmen for their wedding to incorporate many of the Weasley brothers so that Bill would not have to be so selective. Harry was one of them, standing opposite Ginny. What interested Harry was that Minister Scrimgeour was called personally to do the wedding ceremony. Of course Harry hadn't really heard of any magical priests or churches so he shouldn't have been surprised.

After the couple said their 'I do's and finished reading each other their vows, there was still the photographs to endure. Harry wished he could say he was having a good time like many of the other people, but there was something serious troubling him.

Fleur had insisted on having a public wedding and though it was being held at the Burrow and Bill had eventually given in. This meant that the entire public knew about the wedding and were invited to drop by. In short, it was absolutely a perfect target for Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Nearly all of the Order of the Phoenix was there and so was Harry's own Order. A bunch of other friends of the Weasleys were present as well as the rest of Fleur's family from France.

The only thing Harry and the rest of the Order of Light could do was shrink and keep their white robes in their pockets at all time in case there was an emergency (Luna's robes had been saved by Neville's quick thinking earlier as he had extinguished the flames with a quick freezing charm and managed to bring them back to the Beacon). Sarah had been instructed to keep close to one of the Order of Light members at all times in case such an emergency arose.

"Harry!" someone called as Harry stepped down from the raised platform that he had been instructed to stand on for some photographs.

Harry groaned. This was nearly as bad as a Death Eater attack. He turned, sighed, and looked up at Rita Skeeter who already had a piece of parchment and her acid green quill poised to write. "Hello, Rita," he said dully.

Rita didn't lose any of her enthusiasm or her frightening grin as she marched straight over to Harry. "I must get your thoughts on weddings," she said as the quill began writing something that Harry couldn't see. "Have you given any thought to becoming married yourself? I see you've had quite a few lady friends…"

"Stop," Harry said as he quickly lost what little patience he had. "Just stop altogether. Don't write anything about me, my daughter or my friends anymore." He said it is a calmly as he could. He actually felt like taking out his wand and hexing the reporter.

"Nonsense," Rita said, not be deterred. "With your wealth you are quite an eligible bachelor. The young witches of _Witch Weekly_ definitely would like to know your views on marriage."

There was a loud bang, but nothing seemed to happen originally. Harry looked rather intently at Rita and noticed that her hair was becoming undone and greasy, much like Snape's. Her makeup seemed to smear and dissolve on the spot.

Rita whirled on the spot to face behind her and glare angrily at Sarah, who had her wand pointed at the reporter. "You silly girl! Look what you've done!"

"Don't insult Harry like that! He's a _great_ person and you only talk about his money! He wasn't allowed to adopt me because of his money, he was allowed because he cares about me!" the young girl's face was contorted with anger.

"You just dug your own grave, girl. You aren't allowed to do magic outside of school-" Rita shot back, but was cut off.

"I didn't see her do any magic," Ron chipped in as he headed over beside the girl.

"Neither did I," Hermione added.

"Or me," called Remus Lupin as came up beside Harry.

"Then her wand will be tested!" Rita snapped, sure she was going to be triumphant.

Harry simply shrugged and headed over beside his daughter. Sarah instinctively grabbed his upper arm. "As far as I know, Sarah was never here," he said with a grin and Apparated away back to the Beacon.

They landed on the front walk wearing their dress robes and quickly hurried inside to change. "Once you get back down," Harry said, "we can head to the town and go see a movie since it'll be a while before the others will be back. There might be something good playing today."

Sarah hurried upstairs to change out of her dress (Harry only needed to remove the robes since he was wearing muggle clothing underneath), quite looking forward to spending a relaxing afternoon.

The two left a few minutes later hand in hand towards the village while somewhere off in London a very angry Rita Skeeter began writing up an article for the next morning's _Daily Prophet_.

To be continued…


	10. Tears, Blood, and Cake!

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 10 of ?  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris for being a superb beta and Jane for the summary. AJ for being… magnificent?

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 10**

**Tears, Blood, and Cake!**

_"A joke is a very serious thing." - Sir Winston Churchill_

By the time that the others had returned back from the wedding reception that evening, the Marauders had already prepared their revenge for the attack on one of their own that morning. The Raiders simply didn't know who they were dealing with. The Marauders had experience on their side this time as Harry did manage to talk to Remus about a certain prank idea they had. Moony had given him some specifics that he couldn't quite understand solely from the log and it allowed him to make this prank the new Marauder's finest one yet.

Everyone person at the Beacon had retired early due to fatigue of just experiencing a long and tiring day. However, the Raiders might have been on their guard that evening if they had noticed that Sarah hadn't gone to room her room that night, but instead went to Harry's. Perhaps it was slightly unfair that Harry had given the girl his invisibility cloak, but since when did anyone play fair in prank wars?

After finalizing their plans and writing a rather detailed entry in the Marauder's Log about what they planned, Harry and Sarah decided to head out at around midnight. Their first target was the slumbering Weasley on the second floor. Harry was sure that Ron was the one that had actually entered his room the night before to do whatever spell he actually cast. Harry had decided that Ron would have the honor of seeing what they had planned first.

As they silently entered Ron's room, Sarah closed the door and softly cast a silencing charm on the room. The Marauders didn't need their other victims tonight to get any wind that something was going down. They had already cast the main portion of the spell in the room while Ron wasn't around. It merely needed to be activated, and Harry had set the perfect sound to activate it.

Harry motioned to Sarah, who covered her ears. He quickly withdrew the dragon horn that Charlie had given him for just such an occasion. He took a deep breath and then blew with all his might. The room erupted in a deafening roar that lasted until Harry was out of breath, but it didn't need to last that long.

Immediately Ron sprang up from his bed and screamed, jumping a few feet in the air before coming back down, springing off the bed again and landing on the floor. Harry and Sarah retreated to the door and waited patiently for Ron's second reaction. With the roar of the dragon horn, the spell they had placed on his bedroom activated.

The spell was a rather complex once which required some time to cast. This is why they had to wait until Ron and the rest of his crew were out of the Beacon before applying it. When activated by a certain sound, normally a keyword, it produced a room full of something the occupant feared most.

"Lumos," Ron said in the dark. Immediately the color drained from his face as his eyes darted around the room. He didn't even notice Harry and Sarah. "Spiders!" he screamed. "Get them away!"

Knowing the spell would wear off in around five minutes, the Marauders quickly exited the room to head to their next victim as Ron tried to fight off hordes of large phantom spiders.

"Incarcerous!" Two voices rang out as soon as Harry and Sarah had exited the room.

Immediately Harry was bound with solid, thick robes. Quickly turning to the side, he saw that Sarah shared a similar fate. His attacker immediately came into his view with the tip of her wand lit, wearing her fluffy pink bathrobe and a smile on her face.

"That way," Ginny said as she pointed towards Hermione's room with her wand.

Hanging his head in defeat, Harry and Sarah were led at wand point by Hermione and Ginny to Hermione's room and then forced to sit down on simple wooden chairs that Hermione had conjured with a few waves of her wand. They were joined a few minutes later by Ron, who looked like he had just been through hell. Well, in his mind, he had been.

"I don't see why I had to be the bait," Ron said angrily.

"Because we knew he'd go for you first, dear brother," Ginny replied with a grin as she went over to where Harry was sitting and sat on his lap, staring him in the eye. "It seems he has forgotten that the Marauders are has-beens compared to the Raiders. Isn't that right, sweetie?" she taunted as she kissed the tip of his nose.

Harry merely grumbled. _What would Moony say if he saw this?_

Ginny kissed the tip of his nose again. "Oh don't be such a poor sport. Just admit that the Raiders are superior and we _might_ let you off easy."

"Stop fraternizing with the enemy!" Ron exclaimed, staring aghast as his younger sister kissed their captured enemy on the lips fleetingly. His remarked earned him a glare from Ginny.

"We won't give up!" Sarah said defiantly. It caused Harry to smile inwardly.

Hermione moved closer to the young girl and squatted so that she could be at face level. She was trying to conceal a smile. "You could at least join the winning side," Hermione commented with mock seriousness. The Gryffindor knew that there was no way Sarah would be changing sides, but if this was to be a proper 'interrogation' certain things needed to be said. Sarah was fiercely loyal to Harry.

"No way," the younger girl replied as she stuck out her tongue. This nearly caused Hermione to laugh, but she managed to keep a straight face.

Hermione turned back to her comrades. "The question is what do we do with them?"

"Trap them in a room with spiders, I think," Ron said bitterly.

Ginny rolled her eyes at the suggestion. "Kiss them until they surrender?" she asked innocently as she planted another kiss on Harry's lips. Harry was helpless against these aggressions, but amazingly he didn't mind.

This time Hermione laughed. "I don't think either of them needs to be traumatized by Ron kissing them, though it is a very cruel idea. Perhaps if they continue trying to beat us we'll have to consider that."

"You don't seem to mind," Ron shot back. Hermione's cheeks went pink.

"At any rate," Hermione said, quickly trying to change the subject, as she moved over to where Harry as tied up. "We need to decide what we're going to with these so called _Marauders_."

"Let us go?" Harry asked meekly. He was already eager to run back to the Marauder's Log and find something so amazing that even Ron, Hermione and Ginny would be caught off guard and fall for it.

"We _could_ do that," Ginny nodded with a grin, "But even you have to admit this is fun." She wiggled in Harry's lap. Despite the fact that this interrogation was being done in mock seriousness, Harry quickly realized that Ginny was opting for a very real form of torture.

"You're naughty," Harry whispered in her ear.

"I know," she whispered back, but gave him a slight wink and stopped wiggling.

_Well, that plan failed,_ Harry thought. There was just no making Ginny Weasley embarrassed.

"Cut them lose," Hermione ordered with her usual tone of mock seriousness. "We all need to get some sleep in case we have something unexpected to do tomorrow," she finished seriously with a sigh. No one wanted to be suffering from lack of sleep if they had to fight against some Death Eaters the next day.

"Why are you in charge?" Ron blurted out as Ginny carried out the order anyways and released Harry and Sarah from the enchanted robes with two flicks from her wand.

"Because of the same reason I have to make all the new advances: You're too nervous to make decisions," Hermione shot back, but then realized that there were a bunch of people present and witnessing her conversation. Both she and Ron blushed deeply.

Harry shook his head at the openness of the conversation Hermione had just stated. It always seemed that Ron and Hermione would be destined to dance around their feelings continually and never tell each other anything upfront. He then noticed that Sarah was staring up at Hermione with a confused look on her face. He quickly stepped over and grabbed his daughter by the wrist and dragged her out of the room.

"What?-" she began to ask.

"You'll understand when you're older," Harry replied firmly as he felt his own face reddening.

"Fine," his daughter muttered as they headed up the flight of stairs back to their floor. "What are we going to do, then?"

"About?" Harry asked as he was caught in his own thoughts.

"The Raiders! We can't let them win!" she exclaimed.

Harry smiled mischievously. "Oh, definitely not. We'll get them soon, but for now we'd best get some sleep." He kneeled slightly and gave her a hug. "Good night, don't let the massive horde of imaginary spiders bite," he said with a grin.

Sarah kissed him on the cheek and rolled her eyes. "Good night!" she said as she skipped off into her room.

"Oh please, Potter, don't get all soft on me," Ginny said with a grin as she came up behind him, causing him to whirl around on the spot and come face to face with her. "Seriously though, it's quite cute," she said.

"She deserves to be loved after what she's been through," Harry commented as he held his arms out.

Ginny slide between his arms and Harry pulled her into a hug. "By that logic you deserve the most love of all."

"Maybe," he replied as he rested his chin on her head. "Love for me can wait until after Voldemort is stopped." He knew he had put his foot in his mouth as soon as he had finished his sentence.

The redhead's head came up to look him in the eyes so quickly that it forced his head to look at the ceiling as his chin got shoved off the top of her head. When he looked back down, he saw that she was furious.

"Then what are we doing?" she asked angrily. Her voice was rising into a high pitched shrill. It was nearly identical to Mrs. Weasleys' voice. "Do you not take any of this seriously? Are you just keeping me around so that you can actually care about our relationship later?" She glared at him, her eyes boring directly into his.

"No… I… that just came out wrong. I didn't mean it," Harry stuttered as Ginny pushed her way out of his arms.

She gave him a look of hatred. "Well it certainly _sounded_ like you meant it," she said calmly. Harry quickly decided her cold fury was far worse than her yelling. She turned on her heel and headed past him and into her room. The door closed with a loud slam.

"What happened?"

Harry turned around quickly again to see Sarah standing in her doorway with a look of concern knit all of her face.

He sighed and went over to here. "Nothing, Sarah. Just go back to bed," he said as he ruffled her hair. He knew his tone betrayed his words. He felt defeated and upset.

"But-"

"It was nothing. Everything will be fine, I'm sure," he said as he gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Now you need to get some sleep otherwise you're going to be tired tomorrow."

Hesitating slightly, Sarah went back into her room and closed the door softly while Harry headed down to the end of the hall to his own room. He entered and turned on the light, definitely not feeling like sleeping at the moment. On his bed was the Marauder's Log. It was opened to the page where they had outlined their prank.

_Mr. Padfoot would like to know the outcome of Prongs Jr.' prank._

_Mr. Prongs is sure that his son succeeded admirably._

_Mr. Wormtail would like to note that Prongs Jr. has exceeded expectations so far._

_Mr. Moony would like to note that with his own personal advice given to Prongs Jr., he cannot possibly fail._

Harry let out another defeated sigh and picked up his quill. The night had gone downhill in a hurry.

* * *

Harry couldn't exactly say the next morning went any better. There was obvious tension in the air as Ginny refused to look at him, save for a few icy glares she gave him while the two ate breakfast at opposite ends of the kitchen island. In fact, the only time Ginny actually made a comment was when Hermione directly asked her what was wrong. 

"I think _someone_ is having an affair with Voldemort. _Someone_ certainly seems to want to spend more time thinking about him when it comes to love instead," she replied venomously.

The comment stung Harry deeply, but that was soon replaced by his own anger. _Who is she to say that this damn war isn't important?_ He fumed in silence until he was slightly distracted by the arrival of a black owl carrying a professionally addressed letter.

"From the Board of Governors," he grumbled to Hermione and Sarah as she opened it. "I don't believe it," he said, actually surprised.

"What?" Hermione, Sarah and even Ginny asked together.

"Mrs. Zabini actually convinced the Board to allow my request to visit Hogwarts. I thought for sure she'd be against it since her son-" he stopped himself in mid sentence. "Why would she do that?" he asked out loud, though he was trying to think of the answer himself.

"Because she's crushing on you?" Neville offered with a grin as he entered the kitchen looking well rested. Of course, Neville and Luna didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night every now and then to deal with the ongoing pranks.

"Har har," Harry said glumly as it he set the later aside. _What could she possibly be after?_

Hermione didn't seem concerned at all. "It's not like she knows why you're going to Hogwarts though, is it?"

Harry shook his head. "Not that I know of. I told her that I wanted to keep an eye on Sarah every now and then, which is actually true. I suppose if Voldemort knows then Zabini would know."

"Exactly. No point worrying about it, then, right?" Neville said as he sat down on the island.

"Guess not," Harry replied as a large barn owl swooped in through the window and dropped the _Daily Prophet_ into Harry's lap. He immediately opened it and glanced at the front page. He had to close his eyes, take a deep breath and count to ten before opening them to read.

_Like Father, Like Daughter?_

_By: Rita Skeeter_

_The Wizarding World is most likely aware of how Harry Potter breaks all sorts of rules or bends them so that he can get away with them. This behavior has continued throughout his entire stay at Hogwarts, but now it has taken a more serious turn. For a while his actions only hurt himself and the few friends that were fanatically loyal to him, however now it has taken a more serious note._

_His actions and stories have obviously rubbed off on his adopted daughter, Sarah Potter, who at a social event yesterday afternoon publicly violated the Underage Magic laws. She seemed to have absolutely no remorse for her actions which is typical of her adoptive father as well. In fact, the public at the event went as far as to defend her similar to the way people always seem to bail out Harry Potter himself due to his fame._

_I think I speak for most of the Wizarding World when I am wondering if this is the sort of example we should be setting for children. Mr. Potter's actions are highly suspect themselves, but they also seem to be rubbing off on her daughter who, I still will add, seems to be fanatically loyal to him. This is questionable in itself and authorities should be questioning whether or not Mr. Potter should be able to have guardianship over his adopted daughter._

_If it was up to this reporter, I would say no. Mr. Potter clearly isn't able to abide by the law himself and upon teaching his daughter that this is, in fact, acceptable, he is breaking them further. Would it be so difficult for Mr. Potter to abide by simple Wizarding Laws? Apparently not and now it is affecting an innocent child._

_Perhaps more legal action should be taken against Mr. Potter to ensure that he sets a good example for Miss Potter._

"Just ignore it," Hermione said with a small laugh. This was her old standby for all of Rita's articles from their fourth year. However, Harry had learned that even if you try really hard to ignore something it won't go away on its own. Still, what exactly could one do to get back at Rita Skeeter?

Harry pondered that question for a few days, however he eventually forgot about as the 27th of August came closer and closer. While this date had no significance in his life until around two months ago, it did now. He was grateful that Voldemort had been quiet lately (though this also unnerved him on a different level) and everything was going somewhat according to plan.

Harry was starting to dread Sarah's Ravenclaw tendencies, however. She seemed to always be around asking what he was doing when he was trying to do something in secret. He didn't really need her to find out what he was planning, but it seemed that her curiosity and thirst for knowledge would eventually ruin the surprise he had planned.

Evidently his fears were in vain as around noon on the 27th, when he told Sarah that they had to go to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes for some potions supplies. The girl either didn't find anything odd about this at all or she knew what was going to happen and wasn't going to mention it. After Sarah had grabbed a hold of his arm, Harry Apparated to the main room of Fred and George's shop to find it deserted. This is actually how it was meant to be, however, as the twins had closed the shop at his request. This was a special day after all.

"But it's closed," Sarah remarked in confusion as they caught their bearings in the darkened shop. They could barely make out the merchandise on the shelves.

"I hadn't noticed," Harry replied with a smile that his daughter was unable to see due to the lack of light. Instead he simply pulled her along towards the back room of the shop which had a faint light emanating from the crack at the bottom of the door.

"But-"

"Not another word," he said firmly as he led the confused girl to the door. "Go on," he beckoned and gestured to the door.

Hesitantly Sarah opened the door.

"Surprise!"

Totally shocked, Sarah entered the room with Harry following her, his smile now visible.

The room was decorated with everything a regular birthday party should have. Self-throwing streamers and randomly inflating and deflating balloons soared around the room while the party guests cheered as the birthday girl made her appearance.

Both Rose and Anthony Bidwell had been instrumental in helping Harry organize the five or so guests of Sarah's age and get them to attend. While he didn't know any of the other Ravenclaws or Hufflepuff's that Sarah had been friends with, Rose did simply because that was one thing they had talked about when she was trying to calm Sarah down back at Hogwarts.

Only a few had actually attended as most parents were worried about letting their children go out and about in the Wizarding World with the threat of Voldemort being a very real and deadly one. Still, Harry was thankful for the effort that Rose and Anthony had put forward so he had invited them on the spot at the Board meeting. It turned out that the celebration was going to be a huge success.

While Sarah went off with her friends and experimented with the loads of free merchandise supplied by the owners of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, Harry was hauled off to the side by Fred and George themselves. One of the twins picked up what look like a small cube and handed it to Harry.

"What's this?" Harry asked as he examined the cube. It was clear and small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

"That-"

"Is what you asked us to keep working on."

"Turned out rather nicely I think."

Harry frowned. "Ok, but how do I see what the cube sees?"

The twins both pointed over to the wall above what looked to be a cluttered work station. There was a small rectangular mirror that at the moment was showing Harry's face looking off at something in the distance. A moment later the mirror changed it's imagine to show Fred looking directly out of it. Another moment passed and it changed to a complete close up of Harry's palm.

"The mirrors cycle through all the sides of the cube that are active," Fred explained.

"Right now all sides are active, which is why they're clear. Here-" George continued as he tapped the side of cube that would be showing his image. It turned an opaque grey. The mirror had one fewer image per cycle.

"So it's like a muggle security camera?" Harry asked in awe. This had impressed him very much.

"A what?" George asked.

"I think he's starting to act like dad if you ask me."

"Unfortunately."

"Most unfortunately."

"We have some spare plugs-"

"- and batteries"

"If you'd like them," they finished together while Harry merely rolled his eyes.

By all accounts the party was a huge success. There was only one thing that was slightly off and that was Ginny had refused to come. This didn't bother Harry too much as he wasn't really in the mood to talk to her either and he didn't want her attitude ruining the day. _Ginny never really liked her to begin with_.

The one thing that Harry was struggling with for weeks was what to give Sarah for her birthday. When he actually came to a decision, it actually felt right so he hoped that he had made the right choice. In his palm he held a small package wrapped in sky blue paper with bronze ribbon, but he couldn't locate the birthday girl.

After maneuvering through the crowd and getting hit twice in the head by rolls of streamers, Harry finally spotted his daughter. She was sitting with a group of her friends and listening to Luna tell them a story about some mythical creature. He smiled. For all Luna's oddity she definitely knew how to hold an audience.

He approached the group from behind the kids on the floor so as not to disturb them.

"… if it hasn't been caught then how do you know it exists?" asked a small boy that was seated next to Sarah.

"Because," Luna began, fixing the boy with her usual dreamy stare. If this unnerved the boy, he didn't show it. "There have been sightings. A lot of people in Sweden have said it exists. They're just better at hiding than we are at finding them."

"And," Sarah added, "It's just a matter of time before they're found."

The young boy wasn't convinced, but he let the argument go as he turned and saw Harry approaching. Harry simply handed the gift to Sarah. "Happy Birthday!"

Looking quite excited, Sarah tore off the wrapping paper to reveal a small jewelry box. All of Sarah's female friends quickly crowded around in awe. The two boys that were attending merely waited patiently for Sarah to open the box. Sarah lifted the lid and grinned as she pulled out a thin golden necklace with a small charm on the end of it.

The charm itself was a small golden lighthouse with a beacon on the top radiating light. The light itself was done in a white gold.

"So you can always find your way home from the darkness, if you should ever need to," Harry explained.

"It's beautiful," Sarah said happily as she got one of her friends to fasten the clip on the back of her neck.

"There's more to it than just good looks. If you hold it in your hand, you should be able to know where I am. Since you seem to think I'm that easy to get rid of and all…" he trailed off and gave her a wink. He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a similar thin golden chain. This one had a small charm of a Cherub flapping its wings. "It has the same charm on it so I can keep track of my little angel," he said, feeling his own face reddening again. _Blimey, that didn't sound so bad in my head, but…_

Either Sarah didn't care how awkward it sounded or ignored it, but she jumped up and hugged him anyways. After she let go, Harry looked around and noticed that one of the boys was feigning gagging while the first boy Harry had scene was merely looking perplexed. This didn't help his blushing.

"It's not everyday you turn twelve," Harry remarked as Sarah examined her necklace. "I can remember my twelfth birthday rather clearly…"

"What happened?" Sarah asked eagerly. She had learned a while ago that nearly all of Harry's stories were excellent.

Harry shrugged. "Nothing much. I was pretty depressed since no one had written to me. As it turned out a mad house elf was blocking my mail. In turn he went on to run around the Dursley's house and drop a large pudding on a house guest." The kids simply stared and then started laughing. It hadn't been funny at the time, but even now Harry could see a lot of humor in it.

It was a short while later that Fred and George floated out a large cake. They began to cut out slices for everyone, but when Sarah approached Fred immediately handed her a special slice.

"A special slice-"

"for the dearest birthday girl," George finished. Fred handed Sarah the plate.

Sarah blinked for a moment and then held it out to George. "_You_ eat it," she said, smirking. Harry had informed her privately a few minutes earlier to never accept anything from the twins unless you were absolutely sure it was safe.

The twins looked aghast. George backed away a bit. "There's no way I'm eating that. It was made especially for you."

"I wouldn't dare," Fred chimed in, backing away an equal amount of steps.

"I insist," Sarah said, giving the plate to George. "There's nothing wrong with it, is there?" she asked innocently.

The twins exchanged glances. Slowly, his hand trembling, George ate a small piece of the cake on the plate. Immediately there was a puff of purple and pink smoke that enveloped the Weasley. When it the cleared there was a miniature pink pony standing and whinnying where George had stood. On the horses rear there was a tattoo of a purple heart with the words 'Birthday Girl' written in loopy red writing.

There was a collective 'aww' from the three twelve year old girls who quickly ran up and began to give George the pony hugs and began using grooming spells on his soft coat. By the time the spell wore off, George had been thoroughly humiliated.

"I believe this was your idea," he said glaring at his twin.

"Hey don't blame me," Fred said defensively.

"We should blame Harry! He must have told her!" they both wheeled around and stared down at Harry.

Harry merely raised an eyebrow. "You just happened to attempt a prank on a Marauder. Of course she isn't going to fall for it. The question is whether or not you want to be allies or enemies." He couldn't help but smirk at the paling of the twins' faces.

"Whatever you say, my liege!" George exclaimed quickly.

"I am at your service!" Fred chimed in.

Together the three of them huddled for a few moments, but their meeting did not go unnoticed by the watchful eye of one of the Raiders.

* * *

Three days later it was one of Hermione's reactions that finally got him to make up his mind to go visit Godric's Hollow. Hermione had taken Ron and said that she wished to take a few days off to go visit her parents who she hadn't seen since before her sixth year started. 

He had been toying with the idea for quite a while, but his mixed feelings about wanting to go and see their graves and the remains of Godric's Hollow had caused him to procrastinate for quite a while. Every time he set a specific date his stomach began to tie in knots as the date approached. Many times he had set it back two weeks because a certain event came up or that he wasn't sure that he was ready.

Today was different. Tomorrow Sarah would be leaving for Hogwarts along with Luna and Harry himself would be traveling around continually with someone else to try and find Voldemort's Horcrux that may or may not be present. It took him a while to work up the nerve, but he finally managed to Apparate to the town, or rather close to it. He decided that popping directly into the town would be a bad idea.

"So it's just down there?" Sarah asked as she looked down at the small village. The place looked almost medieval from the hill they were standing on. Godric's Hollow was in a valley.

Bringing Sarah along was another hard decision. He knew the entire trip was going to be emotional for him and very hard to handle. Harry thought for this reason alone that she should stay home, but then a nagging thought in the back of his mind convinced him otherwise. After all, she was family.

Harry nodded. He was already feeling uncomfortable and his stomach was already feeling queasy. _Some Gryffindor I am_, he thought as he sighed. "Yup. That's Godric's Hollow," he replied as the two of them began walking down the hill on the side of the road. Harry thought that someone might wonder why they were walking down the side of the only road into town seeing as Godric's Hollow was a relatively isolated community and the next nearest two was a good thirty kilometers away.

When the Potters finally reached the small town it was exactly how Remus had described it to him the day before. It had a very old fashioned feel too it like most of the Wizarding World, but this was not a Wizarding community. James and Lily Potter were the only witch and wizard to have ever lived there. _Even the road is cobblestone_, Harry thought as he took in the sights.

Half an hour later Harry wished he had Apparated to the other side of the village, but he soon found out why Remus insisted on the one location he actually did Apparate to. After walking for a few minutes down the main, and only, road which lead them straight through the small town they came upon a babbling stream. There was a wooden bridge leading across the river to a dirt path that looked like it went off towards some forest that was behind the town. According to Remus' directions, the cottage that his parents had lived in was around the outskirts of the forest past the bridge.

"Unless yer looking for something in the woods there ain't nothin' there for ya," remarked an elderly man who was fly fishing from the bridge.

"All that's down this trail is the woods?" Harry said, scratching his head. Fidelius would have worn off by now so there should be ruins or something. Remus had told him that his parents were buried there by himself and Dumbledore shortly after Sirius was thrown into Azkaban.

"Nothin' down there but the forest," the man repeated. "Mind ya I haven't had much time to look around. I keep getting' mighty busy when I want to have a look around, ya know? Usually I gotta take my wife somewhere… I tell ya…"

Something clicked in Harry's mind. _The Muggle repellent charms are still active… Dumbledore must have kept them up to keep the muggles from finding the graves…_ "We're going to have a picnic up by the woods, actually," harry replied and nodded towards the woods.

Harry took Sarah's hand and quickly led her away before her confused look gave anything away. They had almost made it to the end of the bridge when the old man called to them.

"But ya haven't got any picnic stuff," he called out, scratching his forehead.

"Uhhh…" Harry was wracking his brain trying to think of a solution. The picnic idea had only come out because he couldn't think of anything better.

Luckily at that very moment the man caught a fish and began fighting it allowing Harry and Sarah to sneak off, much relieved. If that hadn't happen, Harry was prepared to simply walk into the area in which the muggle repellent charm would have been activated, but this was a lot easier.

Harry and Sarah continued down the dirt path and found that it them around the edge of the woods to the right. The forest itself was quite lush. There were tall trees that were flourishing with life while the underbrush was just as vivid and growing. The one thing that caught Harry's eye was a type of yellow flower that he had never seen before. It seemed to grow in abundance here if not anywhere else Harry had been which, granted, wasn't too many places.

Eventually the path turned into a small fenced off garden on the edge of the woods. Up a small stone pathway as the remains of a small wooden cottage that looked like it had been caught in a blazing inferno. Most of the walls were still standing except for the front left corner from Harry's viewpoint. The entire building was burnt to a crisp and the few things that were still standing were black and charred. Harry suspected that if it weren't for the valley protecting it from most fierce winds the structure would have collapsed already. Still, he wasn't going to try and touch it.

Harry tentatively took his first step forward onto the property of his first home. At this instant Sarah let go of his hand and told him that she'd wait for him for a bit as she wanted to check out the woods anyways. He nodded and took another step forward. Already he could feel tears collecting in his eyes as he imagined what his life would have been like had his parents still been alive.

He would have gotten to live in this simple house. He would have been able to have a family and warm, caring home to grow up in. Harry looked to the side and saw what could only be the remnants of a garden. A small flower bed was along the edges of the small picket fence. Perhaps Lily Potter had kept a garden? They could have grown vegetables like the Weasleys as well. It was just one more thing Harry didn't know. As he looked at the scorched cottage again, he was reminded directly of what Remus Lupin had told him yesterday.

_"Your parents were always down to earth, Harry. Sure, James might have shown off a bit and Lily was extraordinarily gifted as well, but just looking at their home alone would tell you all you need to know. It was a small, cozy cottage. Most rich wizarding families like the Malfoys or the Blacks feel the need to show off with large manors or houses, but no, not your parents. A simple warm and inviting house was all they needed."_

Harry smiled sadly. As he entered through the front doorframe which no longer had a door he realized that Remus was exactly right. The crisp remains of simple, yet comfortable furniture was all he could find in what he suspected was a living room to the right of the small entry way. He headed straight through the living room into the back right corner of the house.

The room here was definitely smaller than the living room and this one seemed to have suffered from a far worse disaster than simple fire. There was a ton of broken and splintered wood all over the ground along with chunks of plaster and rock from the walls. The walls themselves seemed to have gaping holes in them as if there was some sort of explosion. Harry took another step forward and spotted the remains of what looked like a wooden cage, but he knew better.

_A crib… my crib_, he thought sadly. _So this is where it all happened. This is where Voldemort…_ he stopped himself as he became angry. _It was right here. He… he killed mum and dad and tried to kill me… and it all blew up in his face…_ At the very least it explained why the room looked like it had a bomb explode in it. He took another step forward and heard a snap under his foot. He bent down to see what he had stepped on to find something he definitely didn't expect.

It was a think piece of blackened wood that had snapped in half when Harry had stepped on it. It wouldn't have been noticed among the other debris and no one else would have paid it any mind. Harry, however, was seemingly drawn to it. He lifted up his foot slowly to see the object. He bent down to get a closer look. From the snapped portion there were shiny silver-white hairs glistening in the sunlight (as there was no longer any roof over the remains of the building).

_Mum's wand_, he thought in surprise as he gently picked up and cradled the two burnt pieces. _Didn't anyone give a bloody damn about picking these things up? She died right there saving me… right well there._ He wasn't sure why, but he pocketed the broken wand before shaking his head. _She died right here. Right on this spot…_

Harry looked up and saw something through the remains of the back wall of the house. He quickly dodged his way through the rest of the debris and headed out into the backyard. It was nearly as small as the front yard, but here the only difference was the two plain tombstones sticking out of the lush green lawn.

Red flowers that looked impossibly perfect were sticking up in a small row in front of each of the tombstones which were so close they were basically touching. Harry approached them slowly and fell to his knees in the soft grass.

_In Loving Memory_

_James H. Potter_

_May 15th, 1960 - October 31st, 1981_

The tombstone beside it had a similar small piece carved into it

_In Loving Memory_

_Lily A. Potter_

_August 1st, 1960 - October 31st, 1981_

Harry wasn't sure what to say at first, but then he just began to talk as his eyes filled with tears. "I wish you didn't die," he blurted out as he wiped the first set of tears on his sleeve. "I wish you didn't die and I could have grown up with you. I wish I didn't have to go to the Dursleys." He let it sink in. Without waiting for a reply he continued after sniffing.

"I didn't want to be the Boy who Lived, I wanted to be the Regular Boy with Parents. I don't want to be the savior of the Wizarding world at all. I wish people would just leave me alone." He stopped and simply gazed up at the cloudless sky directly above.

He shook his head and wiped his eyes though it didn't do much good. He was crying regularly now and not ashamed to admit it. He did his best to stop. "I'm sorry, you must think I'm selfish," he muttered as he tried to get his emotions under control.

"I have some good friends," he commented idly. "They're going to help me beat...kill Voldemort once and for all. He came back, you know. I won't let him hurt anyone anymore. I'll stop him even if it costs me my life, you know." He smiled sadly as he felt the tears traveling down his face. "I know you wouldn't want me to think like that, but it's true, you know. I have to murder him or he murders me. It has to end like that." He thought about it for a moment as he looked down at the headstones again. "I guess you already knew that and that's why you hid. You hid for me… but…" he couldn't finish his thought.

Harry heard some footsteps behind him in the ruined house. "I have a daughter now… no mum… I adopted her, I didn't get anyone pregnant…" he allowed himself a rare smile at the comment. He looked directly at mother's headstone. "Don't let Remus tell you otherwise, either. I assume he talks with you…"

He leaned forward and carefully slid his fingers over his mother's name. The headstone was smooth with no dirt on it whatsoever. The flowers were still in perfect bloom. The whole scene was totally flawless and Harry strongly suspected Dumbledore had worked some magic to keep it like that. Harry turned to his father's headstone and smiled sadly. "Remus made us Marauders on my birthday. We're going up against the Raiders-" he sighed. "They're a rival prank group made of my friends, but we'll be ok. Sirius might have told you we have the Map," he stopped to let his father take in this information. "Remus gave me your Log for my birthday this year… I think we'll be able to beat them." He was feeling slightly less depressed now.

There was some noise behind him so Harry turned around to see Sarah hesitantly standing in what used to be the back door. "It's ok, come over here," he beckoned as he turned back to the headstones.

When Sarah kneeled beside him, he used an arm around her shoulders to pull her into a hug. "Mum, dad… this is Sarah. She's my daughter," he said. After the introductions were made the sun seemed to shine just a little more brightly than it had previously.

Around ten minutes later Harry and Sarah were lazily walking back across the wooden bridge. The fisherman seemed to have abandoned his post, but that didn't bother either of the two as they were both deep in thought. It was Sarah who broke the silence first, but it was something that Harry was totally unprepared for.

"Dad?" she asked tentatively.

Harry merely blinked and turned to her. This was the first time that she had called him that, though Harry knew she had been close on a few occasions. He obviously had a lost look on his face for far too long because Sarah's face fell.

"I thought you were…" she said sadly.

"What? Of course I am!" Harry replied quickly with a smile. "You just caught me off guard. I'm… I'm not really used to being called that…" he finished, feeling quite bad. "I'm your father, but also your older brother and friend too. Well, maybe not too much your older brother otherwise I'd have to prank you a lot more…" he trailed off with a small smile. Sarah merely sniffled so he continued. "I guess I just wasn't expecting that. I can be whatever you want me to be. If you want to call me dad, but all means do so. Is that ok?" She nodded and gave him a strong hug.

"Now, what is it you wanted to ask me?" Harry asked, having wondered what she was thinking about since they had left the cottage.

"Where are my parents buried? Was there a funeral?" she asked softly.

The comment hit Harry hard. Why hadn't he ever been told, or more importantly why hadn't Sarah been told about a funeral or where her parents were buried. _Bond… Bond wanted Sarah back. Bond and the Ministry wanted to take her to her uncle. If her uncle knew and didn't tell her… or if the Ministry didn't bother…_ He formed a fist with his left hand and slammed it down on the railing of the bridge causing the entire thing to vibrate. "I don't know," he said, trying to control his anger. "The Ministry or your uncle didn't bother to inform us…" He looked down at Sarah and saw her pale, pained expression. "But I am going to find out even if I have to break down the Minister's doors to do it." _And I'll have more than a few choice words for Umbridge and Bond while I'm there._

Sarah nodded, though she was still looking quite crestfallen. Harry was determined to lighten the mood. He was still somewhat upset himself after visiting his parents' ruined house, but he felt relieved at the same time. "What do you say we go into London for some ice cream before going back to the Beacon?" he asked. When Sarah nodded, he simply smiled. "Just as long as it doesn't ruin your appetite for dinner. What kind of dad would I be if I let that happen?" he asked innocently while Sarah rolled her eyes. If anyone had looked closer they may have noticed her trying to hide a grin.

* * *

Harry sat eating a leisurely breakfast while Sarah and Luna quickly rushed around the floors above collecting items they needed for Hogwarts. Harry himself had never seen a morning on September 1st that didn't involve rushing around. This one was mainly due to after coming back to the Beacon yesterday, Sarah definitely wasn't in the mood to pack. Luna, being Luna, didn't pack either until the last minute, though she really didn't seem to be rushing around. 

Ron and Hermione were still visiting the Grangers. Hermione had sent Pig back the other day telling Harry that they shouldn't be expected back for a few days. The two of them had tried to explain everything about the current state of the Wizarding world complete with a long history and her parents weren't taking it well. This was to be expected, of course. Hermione also wanted to put up some more wards on their house or convince her parents to move to a safer location. Harry had offered to let the Grangers stay in Grimmauld Place if they desired.

It was quarter to eleven when Neville burst into the kitchen in a rush. "The Weasley twins just floo'd us. They said Death Eaters were in Diagon Alley!" he said.

Harry immediately sprang up off his seat. He quickly glanced at his watch and saw the time. While they could simply Apparate to King's Cross station in the blink of an eye, it still didn't give him time to do two things at once. "Just a second," he told Neville and rushed upstairs.

Harry found Sarah in her room just finishing up packing her trunk with the assistance from Luna, who was experimenting with some packing spells. When they saw him enter, they looked up at him in surprise. "What's wrong?" Sarah asked.

"There's trouble in Diagon Alley. I don't think I'm going to be able to make the train. If I don't, I'll apparate to Hogsmeade in time to meet you," he said in a rush. He got a disappointed nod from Sarah in return, but there was nothing that he could do about it. He stopped for a moment just as he was about to head out of the room. "Take Susan with you to King's Cross. If there's any sign of trouble get back here right away. Use Luna's ring or Apparate back. This timing is too coincidental. I don't like the sound of it." He pulled Sarah into a hug and kissed her on the forehead. "Be careful!"

He sprinted outside into the backyard to where Neville and Ginny were already waiting in their white robes. Harry quickly donned his and nodded to the other two. With three soft pops they Apparated directly into Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

George was there to meet them, though he looked panicked. "Fred's gone to the Ministry to get Aurors, but the Death Eaters are gone now. Two of them just dragged this bloke out in front of our shop and hit him with this spell. He's still lying there." He stopped for a moment and his eyes glanced up and down the three people in front of them. "And when do I get robes like those?"

"When we figure out how to duplicate them," Harry muttered as he pushed his way past George and headed out of the shop. He could see the body of a middle aged man lying face down in the street with some dark red blood slowly expanding from underneath him.

Harry stopped short just before the man and bent down. The man was clearly dead so he took out his wand and slowly levitated the man into the air and rolled him over. The wound was a simple cut from the abdomen all the way up to his collarbone.

"Look at the blood," Ginny remarked in surprise from behind him.

Turning his head back to glare at her, he snapped, "I think we all saw there was blood, you know."

"No, _look_ at it," Ginny replied again, staring directly down where blood stained the street."

Shaking his head slightly Harry waved his wand and gently set the body down on it's back before looking down to see what had Ginny so enthralled.

_Will Potter come out and play now?_

With the removal of the body, the blood on the ground had flowed directly in to letters forming the sentence on the pavement. It was an effective message delivered by Voldemort that made Harry's blood boil. _I've been in three battles since the end of school and you think I haven't done anything? We'll see about that._

"The Aurors will be here any minute," Neville reminded Harry. "I don't think they'll like us being here."

"The message was for me, obviously, and they put the poor bloke here just so Fred and George could get it-"

"But our robes," Neville cut him off. "And you know regardless of where they dropped the body they'll wonder why we're here."

Harry nodded and sighed. "Let's go back inside."

When they were all safely in the back room of the shop, Fred came in a few moments later telling everyone that the Aurors had arrived and effectively told him to scram.

"I think it's obvious that Voldemort knows you two are helping us. I think you might want to move out or-" Harry began, but was immediately interrupted by the twins' protests.

"We're not going anywhere," George said.

"We won't abandon our business," Fred finished.

"Besides, if any of them want to try and break in here to harm us we have more than a few surprises cooked up for them," the twins said together, pride evident in their voices. Harry couldn't even begin to imagine what sort of traps or other devices the twins had set up.

Harry glanced at as watch. It was three minutes to 11 and unless he hurried he would be missing the Hogwarts Express. He truly wanted to scope out the students returning to Hogwarts and see if he could get any clues as to what Voldemort was planning. "Make sure you find out what the Aurors are doing, I've got a train to catch," he said as he pulled out his wand a popped back to the back yard of the Beacon.

After hurrying up to his room and grabbing a few items he didn't have time to distribute prior to Sarah and Luna leaving, Harry quickly went back down to the back yard. He took a deep breath and then Apparated direction to Platform 9 and 3/4. When he arrived the train was just issuing its final call whistle. He checked around to make sure no one was specifically watching him before slipping on his invisibility cloak.

He made it to one of the doors just as the train began to pull away. Clinging to the door handle to keep himself from falling over, he shoved it open as best he could and walked aboard. After making sure his cloak wasn't going to get caught in the door, he shut it and locked it firmly.

Harry was correct in assuming that not many people would be attending Hogwarts this year. Usually the halls of the train were crowded with students visiting each other, but this year there were only one or two people trying to see if their friends were coming back. It wasn't difficult for him to avoid walking in to any people as he searched for Sarah and Luna.

He found them sitting alone in one car and silently slid open the door and slipped in. Closing the door behind him, he drew the curtains and took off his cloak's hood.

"You made it!" Sarah exclaimed happily.

Harry winked. "I keep telling you that you can't get rid of me that easily, but you seem to take every opportunity to think so."

"You do seem to find a lot of trouble," Luna informed him.

Sighing as he sat down, Harry looked across at Luna. "It finds me, you know."

"If you say so," Luna replied as she settled back and withdrew the latest Quibbler. A moment later she was holding it upside down and reading the latest articles on Ancient Runes.

"… you sure?"

"No one will know if…"

The two familiar voices came from outside the car. Harry knew them well and figured that even if he hadn't heard those snippets of conversation that they'd be up to no good. He stood up and pulled the hood of his cloak on again before heading towards the door. "Stay here and keep an ear out. I'm going to see what Pansy is up to."

By the time he got out into the corridor again Pansy and Zacharias had nearly made it to the back of the current car. They seemed to be glancing into every single compartment as they went down the aisle. Harry followed them at a distance, though he wanted to hear what they were speaking. _They're checking to see if anyone is paying attention to stop them…_ _or maybe they're checking for me_, he thought. _They have to be Death Eaters now. They're Voldemort's Hogwarts servants now that Snape is gone._

He followed the two Death Eaters to the rear of the train where they entered a compartment and closed the door. By the time Harry made it to the compartment the curtains were drawn and the door was locked. He listened intently, trying to ascertain what they were doing. When there were some low whispers and other sounds he couldn't quite place coming from the compartment he knew he had to take action. Whatever Pansy and Zacharias were plotting it wasn't going to be good.

"Alohomora," he whispered, pointing his wand at the door lock. There was a click as it unlocked. Harry waited in silence incase either of the two occupants took notice and went to investigate. As the sounds continued from inside the compartment Harry gripped the door handle and slowly pulled it open. When it was wide enough Harry leaned forward and stuck his head in.

There were two standard black student robes on the ground in a pile along with a simple forest green skirt. On top of the clothing there was a pair of purple underwear with a large red heart that would sit directly over a girl's nether regions. Despite these obvious warning signs, Harry looked up and saw what would later haunt him for a good part of his life. Zacharias' pants and boxers were down around his ankles while Pansy was sitting lengthwise across one of the seats leaning up against the far wall. Harry was merely thankful she still had her shirt on.

Harry stared dumbfounded at the scene for a few seconds before his brain clicked. Horrified and disgusted at seeing Pansy half naked, he quickly pulled his head out of the compartment and shut the door. There was a soft bang as the door closed and Harry heard Pansy yelp and say something quickly to her partner in a panicked voice.

After making his way back Sarah and Luna's compartment he sat down on one of the seats and caught his breath. He simply shook his head and laughed nervously, though he wished he could get the image of Pansy's underwear and the scene on the seat out of his mind.

"What was it?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing I'm going to tell you about," Harry said flatly, an unnatural paleness on his face and steel in his voice. Luckily Sarah decided not to press the issue by demanding to know.

It was a good ways into the voyage to Hogwarts that Harry spotted Justin Finch-Fletchley walking down the corridor to his normal compartment. Harry was glad he had decided to keep the curtains open after the Pansy incident to see who exactly was roaming what. He was surprised to see, however, that Justin had a silver prefect's badge on his robes above his Hufflepuff house shield.

"'scuse me," he told the Ravenclaw girls in his compartment as he got up and headed out again. Justin used to be talkative and generally happy for as long as Harry had known him. Now he still looked as depressed as when Harry had seen him on the train platform. Though he figured he'd be annoyed by people trying to talk to him about his personal problems, he knew that someone had to do it.

Luckily he didn't have far to tail Justin as the Hufflepuff went into the compartment right beside his. After taking off his invisibility cloak he knocked on the door before entering.

Justin looked surprised to see him. "Hey Harry, I thought you weren't coming back this year," he commented. This tone was pretty depressing.

Harry sat down opposite Justin and shrugged. "I'm not going back, but as you and everyone else probably already know I adopted a girl whose parents were killed in the King's Cross attack at the end of last year. She was attacked by some of her housemates before we went home."

"I heard. Congratulations." The reply was so unlike Justin. The old Justin would have been enthusiastic and giving a more thorough reply.

"So, Ernie not coming back, then?" Harry knew that Ernie MacMillan was Justin's best friend at Hogwarts.

The Hufflepuff shook his head and tapped the Prefect's badge on his head. "No. Neither are Susan and Hannah. Zacharias is back, though," Justin said glumly. He leaned forward a bit as if someone was listening in. "I think Zacharias is up something. He's been hanging around with Parkinson and all the Slytherins… I think he might be… you know."

_He's in something pretty deep, actually_, Harry mentally rolled his eyes and then reddened as he realized how wrong his thought was. Harry quickly nodded and hoped his reddening went away. "He is," Harry replied simply. It was best to let Justin know in case Zacharias tried anything while they shared the same dorm.

"How do you know? What have you been doing? You've been fighting-" Justin was silenced as Harry cut him off with a glare. Some students were moving down the corridor.

"I've been doing a little of this and a little of that," Harry admitted. _Though not in the same way as Zacharias_, he thought. _Bloody hell!_ He growled and tried to remove the forever burned in image from his mind. "What have you been up to?" he asked as his mind shifted back to a certain pair of purple panties with a red heart. He shook his head again to clear it.

"Nothing much," Justin replied, looking down at his hands. "I… I don't know what to do, honestly." He looked back up at Harry with a face wrought with worry and nervousness.

"If you want to talk about it, you can," Harry offered, though he wasn't sure how Justin would take it. If not he could always recommend Luna the Psychiatrist.

Justin just looked across at Harry for a few moments before slumping his head down again. "When my parents died, I… I lost it I guess. I got to mourn them and all and I guess all things considered I handled that pretty well," he stopped and looked back up. Harry nodded and beckoned him to continue. "I figured for a while that I didn't want to be part of the Wizarding world anymore, you know? If I hadn't insisted on wanting to go back to Hogwarts every year they wouldn't have been on that platform. I could have just gone to Eton like all my other friends, but no I had to show off at a Wizarding school." He sounded almost bitter and jealous.

"When my parents died they left a lot of their money to charity since they assumed that when they did pass away I'd have a great education at Eton and well on my way to getting a Law degree. It's what I always wanted. A law degree, that is," he sighed. "I just want to leave the Wizarding world, but I can't." Justin ran a hand through his hair. "The Ministry won't give me a muggle A-levels equivalent unless I complete Hogwarts. I guess that's to stop untrained wizards from leaving school and going to the muggle world. And even when I complete Hogwarts I can't just go to a muggle university and get a law degree because I won't know anything like Mathematics and other classes I'd need for it. For all it teaches, Hogwarts doesn't teach English or other required classes."

Harry simply nodded, taking in all the information. "I've been where you are, trust me."

"And why didn't you run away?" Justin asked glumly.

"Would it have done any good? Voldemort tracks me down everywhere and I can't run away from him," Harry said off hand.

Justin sighed. "At least you have a purpose. I have nothing now."

"Not true. Susan didn't really think she had a purpose either. She found a great one," Harry informed him proudly.

"You know where Susan is?" Justin asked, surprised. "She basically disappeared off the face of the earth… wait… is she helping you?"

"She does a little of this and a little of that as well, yes," Harry said with a smile. He checked his watch and saw that they'd be arriving in Hogsmeade in fifteen minutes. "I need to get back to my daughter, but if you feel the need to do a little of this and a little of that go see Luna. She can get you in contact with the right people." He knew Moody would have a fit if he knew what Harry was telling Justin right now. Harry trusted Justin, though. Justin's status as a muggleborn would ensure that he wasn't working for Voldemort, but even if he was a pureblood Harry knew that Justin would never sink so low.

Justin blinked. "Luna _Lovegood_?" he asked in pure surprise.

Harry arched an eyebrow. "Is there another Luna that I'm not aware of?" His tone clearly stated that he didn't want to hear any comments about 'Loony Luna'.

"I guess not. I'm not sure, though, if I can do anything. I'll have to think about it…"

"No one's forcing you. Have a good year and watch out for Zacharias," Harry said as he stood up and exited the compartment.

When he returned to his own compartment he found Sarah alone and dressed in her standard black Hogwarts robes. "Where's Luna?" he asked, frowning.

"That Pansy Parkinson girl was heading down towards the engine looking quite mad. Luna decided to go see what she was up to," Sarah informed him.

"How long ago was this?" Harry asked. He had a bad feeling in his gut.

Sarah shrugged. "About two minutes ago. She said if she's not back in about five to go get you."

Harry sighed with relief. He was glad that Luna was about to think ahead like that. "Listen, Sarah," he said as he sat down. "I need to tell you some things before we get to Hogwarts." He waited until he had her full attention. "Now I know you've learned quite a bit this summer, but I need to ask you to keep most of it a secret."

"But why?" she asked.

"Things like the new dueling spells you've learned should be kept secret in case of an emergency. If you go around talking and showing what you've learned it lets all the Death Eaters, like Pansy Parkinson, know what to expect. It's best to keep them in the dark," Harry explained.

"Oh," Sarah said simply. "I guess you're right."

Harry continued. "I also want you to stick close to Luna-" he caught her look of annoyance. "Look, I know you can take care of yourself and you're pretty independent, but I think you can understand my concern. As much as you might think you've come along dueling wise, the others are just stronger than you because of experience. Also, you only have Luna there and we've seen at least three people on the train that we know to be Death Eaters."

Sarah simply nodded.

"I don't want you to feel like I'm cutting you down because you're quite bright and have picked up a lot of things really quickly, but I am just trying to put them in perspective. Now then," he said as he got up and the train slowed. "Have a great year. Once you guys get into your common room you can send an owl or use the Floo network to tell me the password so I can come say hello." He gave her a hug and a kiss on the top of the head.

Luna returned just as the train slowed and reported that Pansy was obviously upset about the way something turned out on the ride. Harry made a note to tell her later, but even then he hoped to have the image of Pansy and Zacharias out of his mind.

Sarah left the compartment and headed out to the train platform when her friend, the young boy with black hair that had attended her birthday party, happened by leaving Harry and Luna alone.

Harry quickly withdrew two things from his cloak pocket and handed them both to Luna. "Some Floo powder," he said indicating the pouch. "You can probably use that on the fires in Ravenclaw tower, but I'm not sure. The other is the Marauder's Map. Has anyone told you how the map works?" The blonde haired girl nodded dreamily and pocketed both items. "Be careful, please and make sure Sarah's ok. Don't let her talk you into anything dangerous, either. She reminds me sort of myself in that regard and I definitely didn't do the smartest things ever in my younger years."

"I'd trust her judgment more than Hermione's," Luna said. Harry had a hard time trying to tell if she was being serious or not. "Your daughter is quite smart."

"If there's any problems, like serious ones, make sure you just use your ring and come back immediately," Harry said, ignoring her comment. "You can go to McGonagall and Hagrid if you need to contact me in an emergency."

"I rather like Professor Hagrid. He has interesting creatures that other people didn't know existed," Luna smiled.

Harry frowned. "In our fifth year you said he was a rubbish teacher."

"Oh yes," she replied serenely. "He is a rubbish teacher, but he has the most remarkable views on certain animals…"

Harry shuddered. He couldn't imagine a conversation about magical creatures between Hagrid and Luna. Frankly he was scared to even imagine it. "You'd best be going so you can ride with Sarah," Harry said.

Luna nodded, gave him a patented dreamy gaze and turned to go. She was stopped when Harry rested a hand on her shoulder which caused her to turn around.

"And Luna… be careful, too. I don't want anything happening to either of you."

"We'll be fine," Luna stated before turning and leaving Harry alone in the compartment.

_I really hope so_, he thought as he took out his wand and Apparated back to the Beacon.

To be continued…


	11. A Breakdown in Negotiation

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 11 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris for being a superb beta and Jane for the summary. Naturally I cannot forget AJ. She's a great e-wench.

**A/N**: For those people who think that adding major OCs ruins fanfiction, perhaps you need to sit back and think about how every canon book introduces major 'OCs'. Such as, if we had only read up to Chamber of Secrets, characters like Remus and Sirius would be 'major OCs'. If I don't make up OCs I can't add to the complexity of the storyline. If you hadn't noticed, I am balancing an unusually large amount of plots and minor subplots.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 11**

**A Breakdown in Negotiation**

_"We have a lack of any sort of sneakiness power—we shall have to rely on audacity instead, sheer audacity!" — Khazarkhan_

When Harry returned to the Beacon from Hogsmeade station he was confronted by more bad news and tasks he had been putting off. First, Neville and Ginny had reported to him with painful accuracy on how the Aurors had handled the situation.

The Aurors, it seemed, had been reduced greatly in number and morale. Fred had reported that even the department at the Ministry seemed empty and Harry wasn't really surprised. The amount of Aurors who were required to run Azkaban successfully, the ones who had died, was a very large sized portion of the total amount. Fred had also mentioned that there was only a handful actually present at the Ministry when he arrived and it took well over ten minutes to get someone to come back with him. Harry had been told by Ginny that it was, in fact, Bond who had reported to the scene and Harry was glad that he had chosen to skip out to take the Hogwarts Express.

Harry was currently doing one thing he had been putting off for a while as well. He was currently sitting at an old desk that was placed in his room a week ago. It was found outside in a garden shed, but seemed to be in near perfect condition. There was a blank sheet or parchment sitting perfectly in the center while Harry himself was sitting with his quill poised above it. Not a single word had been written for Harry did not know how to say what he wanted to.

_Hello, Tom! I don't even know your last name, but your establishment was destroyed and I'd like to send you some money_. Harry groaned and vanished the sarcastic words with a wave of his wand. It was a bitter attempt since he had been trying to write it out for an hour now. He rubbed his temples as he thought over more important things. At this moment he looked up into a mirror that someone, Harry wasn't sure who, had hung on the wall over his desk. Once he realized what he looked like rubbing his temples and trying to clear a headache he immediately recoiled with a sigh. He looked, for lack of a better word, old and tired. Harry suddenly had a vision of himself at Dumbledore's age and still trying to coordinate a war effort against Voldemort.

In the end Harry settled for a short and simple message. He was part of the White robed figures fighting against the Death Eaters and felt responsible for the loss of his business. He enclosed a sizeable sum of British Pound Sterling notes. Harry, of course, left the note unsigned. He was just sealing the letter when there was a knock at his door. Harry turned around in his chair to see who it was.

"Harry… can… can we talk?" Ginny asked. She was standing in the doorway wearing a simple summer dress with a floral pattern. She had worn similar dresses throughout the last week due to the still hot weather.

"I suppose," Harry replied with a shrug as he leaned back in his chair. He was still feeling rather bitter about the whole situation.

Ginny nervously entered the room and sat down on the edge of the bed which was just a few feet from Harry's desk and chair. She had a depressed look on her face. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, looking down at her lap.

With a flash of anger Harry was about ready to tell her exactly what he thought of her apology when he wouldn't even look at her. He calmed himself down a bit with a few deep breathes before replying. "If you won't even look at me, it doesn't mean anything," he snarled bitterly.

She looked hurt by his words, but nodded. There were tears forming in her eyes. Ginny looked up at him. "You're right. You're always right," she said, her lower lip trembling.

Harry simply glared at her and waited for her to continue.

"I'm sorry. I made a big deal of it acting like a spoiled brat. It's just…" she hesitated.

"Go on," Harry said plainly.

"I'm jealous, Harry," she sobbed. "I'm just a jealous _bitch_," she spat the last word loudly so that she could hear it.

Harry blinked. This was news to him. "What? What on earth are you jealous about?" he asked, clearly surprised.

It was Ginny's turn to blink blankly. "You… you don't even know?" After Harry shook his head Ginny sighed. "Don't you see? You try to break up with me, but we stay together and everything is fine. We have a little time apart and then suddenly you come back acting like super dad with a daughter." She was crying freely now and trying to wipe her tears off on the sleeve of her dress.

"It's not like I became a father out of nowhere. Sarah needed me," Harry said defensively.

"I know, Harry, I _know_, but that doesn't stop me from thinking certain things. You started spending a lot more time with her than you did me-"

Harry glared again. "And what was I supposed to do, Ginny? Say 'alright your parents are dead and I adopted you. Go find something to do!'?" His anger was growing again.

"I told you I know," Ginny sobbed. "And then to make it worse Luna, who was the one friend I had that was my age here and isn't part of some golden friendship, starts spending more time with Sarah than me. Luna's become better friends with a twelve year old girl than someone her own age!" Ginny was starting to get angry now, though she continued crying.

"Don't blame me for what Luna does," Harry snapped back. "It's not like I'm going to tell Luna and Sarah to stop being friends. In case you hadn't noticed, Sarah has no one around her that's her own age either."

Her face flushed, Ginny simply glared daggers at him. "I'm trying to apologize here!" she yelled angrily. "You're barely letting me explain why I was acting like a bitch and when I do say something you snap right back at me!" She got up off the bed and hurried out towards the door before Harry could get out of his chair and stop her.

Harry quickly got up and followed her out the door and down the hallway. He got to the door to her room just as it slammed in his face with a loud bang that Harry was sure everyone else in the house heard. "Ginny!" he called, banging on the door with his fist. When she didn't answer, Harry drew his wand and pointed it at the door. "_Alohomora_," he nearly shouted. The door clicked open and Harry entered.

Ginny was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled to her chest. She was shaking with anger, yet still crying. Harry wasn't sure whether she was more angry or upset.

Moving over to the bed, Harry sat down on the edge beside Ginny. "I'm sorry that I didn't let you finish," he said simply. "I think it was good that you were telling me what you thought."

Her eyes simply shifted over to him. They had an icy look to them.

"You were right," he tried again. "I was an idiot for not letting you finish, though there were some things I obviously didn't agree with…"

She sighed and nodded ever so slightly. "I was _going_ to say, before you kept biting my head off, I was already jealous over Sarah, but then you made a comment about how nothing meant anything until Voldemort was gone-"

"You _know_ I didn't mean it like that," Harry said, then shut his mouth quickly when he realized he had interrupted her with another loud reply.

Ginny merely glared and continued. "I don't think we should let Voldemort stop us from loving each other," she finished. She had stopped crying now and was wiping the final tears off of her cheek.

Harry sighed and nodded. "You are right and I definitely don't want to let Voldemort run my life, but at the same time…" he trailed off and looked her in the eyes. He grabbed her hands in his before he continued. "I can't just pretend that Voldemort isn't around, Ginny. I just can't. I'm the head of the only force that seems to be putting even the smallest wrench into Voldemort's plans. That saddens me enough, but Voldemort killed my parents, Sarah's parents and his Death Eaters have killed many others. There are a lot of horrible things going on out there and my mind just isn't always thinking about romance. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is." He simply waited for her reaction. He simply waited for her reaction. He was scared that she would find this unacceptable, but it was the truth.

"Like I said, I know, Harry. I was being a jealous brat. Jealous of a twelve year old girl that had her parents killed by the person we're trying to stop. I'm such an idiot," Ginny said glumly. She looked up at him. "Can you ever forgive me? Again, I mean."

Harry nodded with a small smile. "I think I can manage that, yes." He held one of her hands up and moved down the kiss the back of it. "But only if you can forgive me for interrupting you and not letting you say what was on your mind."

Throwing her arms around him and hugging him warming, Ginny smiled. "I can do that easily," she informed him. They snuggled for quite some time and while they did nothing naughty at all, Ron would have been horrified to learn that Harry and Ginny did sleep peacefully in the same bed that night, albeit fully clothed.

* * *

Ron and Hermione had returned to the Burrow early the next morning and were eating breakfast by the time Harry was awake enough to head downstairs, skipping his usual shower. He simply donned his bathrobe instead. Hermione greeted him warmly, but Ron simply stared at him rather oddly.

Harry yawned and shook his head to clear away the last bit of drowsiness. "What?" he asked his best friend.

"Oh… nothing really…" Ron trailed off. He tried to act like nothing was wrong, but kept shooting Harry glances that were unreadable. Ron also seemed to be trying to keep his mouth shut and was only succeeding with looks from Hermione.

"Ron, we've got about ten minutes before I have to talk to you all anyways, why don't you just tell me what's bothering you?" Harry asked, exasperated.

"I… I…" Ron started, but was unable to finish his sentence. His ears simply reddened.

There was a startling bang as Hermione slammed the book she was reading down on the island counter. "Oh for _heavens sake_, Ron! I'll tell him if it bothers you too much." She turned to Harry. "Ron got a letter from Charlie while we were at my parents' house. There was some family news in it and Ron decided to act like a five year old by running all the way up to Ginny's room to tell her-"

"Oh Merlin," Harry muttered as he went red himself and didn't even hear the rest of what Hermione was saying. Nothing had happened with Ginny and they were fully clothed, but when he had woken up they were quite close together. "Nothing happened! We were fully clothed!" Harry stammered. "We had some problems to work and we did… it was late…" he kept adding more and more things meekly, hoping that Ron would tone down his usual 'Ginny's boyfriend' reactions.

Ron surprised them all. "I know… I wasn't going to say anything, but blimey Harry if it has to be anyone I'd rather it be you."

"_What_?" replied Harry with his mouth open in surprise. "I mean… it's just that… that…"

"That's not the way he usually talks about who I date?" Ginny offered as she came up behind Harry and kissed his cheek. "Maybe he's maturing after all."

"You really should hear the way he used to talk about Dean," said Neville as he too entered the kitchen. Susan arrived a few moments behind him, saving Harry the trouble of having to assemble a meeting.

Once Ron had defended himself by stating how was 'never that bad and just looking out for his little sister', it was time to get down to business. Susan had, in Harry's opinion, learned enough Occlumency to be let in on the main scheme of things. Harry spent a few minutes giving her a brief overview of the Horcruxes and what the Order of Light was attempting to do. He promised to give her a more detailed explanation tonight after.

When everyone had taken a seat around the island in the kitchen, Harry told them what had to be done. "I need someone to come to the Chamber of Secrets with me since that's the smartest and safest place for Voldemort to hide his Hogwarts Horcrux. We only have two invisibility cloaks and even though I have permission to be there, I don't want to have to use that unless it's an emergency."

Ginny and Ron had noticeably paled at the idea. "I'm not going back there, mate. Being stuck with Lockhart after the cave collapse wasn't fun."

Ginny shook her head adamantly. "I'm never going back there, even if you did destroy that diary and kill the Basilisk… too many bad memories."

This was basically what Harry expected from both of the Weasleys. He turned to Neville and Susan and saw them both shrug with an 'if you want us to' expression. Hermione, however, was trying hard to refrain from jumping up and down with excitement. She looked exactly like she did when she knew an answer in a class.

Harry gave her a look bored look. "Would you like to come, Hermione?" he asked, trying not to laugh.

Hermione nodded vigorously and sprang up to go get some parchment and a few quills to take notes on Slytherin's Chamber. Harry sighed and stood up. "I need the rest of you to keep on the look out for Death Eater activity as usual. We won't be able to be reached while we're at Hogwarts. Well, at least not quickly. Ron, you're in charge until we're back tonight."

Ten minutes later Harry and Hermione Apparated into a back ally beside Honeydukes in Hogsmeade. From there they donned their Invisibility cloaks and headed up the street towards Hogwarts. It took them a good twenty minutes to make their way up the sloping hill and to the front doors. They slipped inside quickly and were glad that they had timed their entrance perfectly enough so that everyone was currently eating in the Great Hall.

As he and Hermione ascended a staircase to the second floor, Harry wondered how Sarah and Luna's first night back had been. He was unsure how many Voldemort oriented students were returning and he hoped whole heartedly that it was less than he suspected. He had spotted about three, but he hardly checked out the entire train and that was only students he was absolutely were Death Eaters, like Pansy Parkinson and Zacharias Smith.

Harry and Hermione entered the bathroom that contained the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. While he was slightly nervous about heading back down into the Chamber, Hermione was a mix of fright and excitement. She had heard all of the horrible stories about it, but her curiosity and the chance to learn was bringing out her typical side. She was also disappointed as this was the one adventure that she hadn't been around for.

"So, come back with another girl already, have you?" sobbed a voice from one of the bathroom stalls. "I thought you said no more!" the voice continued, only becoming more agitated. Moaning Myrtle floated through the door of her stall and out into the open. Harry and Hermione both froze.

"It's no use hiding!" wailed Myrtle. "I can tell you're here… but oh no, let's not introduce ourselves to poor little Myrtle. We'll just ignore her until she leaves to wallow in self pity!"

Against his better judgment and Hermione's shock, Harry pulled off the hood of his invisibility cloak. "Hello, Myrtle," he said simply.

Myrtle looked unsurprised, but her mood brightened considerably or at least as happy as Moaning Myrtle could get. "Harry! I knew you'd come back to see me soon!"

"Uh, we're not really here to see you Myrtle, but it's always nice to say hi. Hermione, you can come out now," Harry winced.

"Not here to see me?" sniffled Myrtle as Hermione reluctantly removed the hood of her cloak and greeted the ghost.

Harry shook his head. "Unfortunately not, but it is good to see you again. Hermione and I aren't coming back to Hogwarts this year, but we'll be around from time to time on imported business."

Myrtle hovered in the air gloomily before the two Gryffindors. "Oh," she said glumly. "Don't let poor Myrtle interrupt your _important_ business. No one else does anyways." She began to slowly glide back to her stall.

"Wait!" Harry called out as an idea popped into his head. "Why don't you come with us, Myrtle? We're going down to the Chamber of Secrets."

"It's pretty gloomy down there I hear, you'll love it," added Hermione under her breath.

"Me? Come with you?" Myrtle flew through the air and stopped only inches from Harry's face. "That's the first time someone has ever asked me to do anything with them!"

"You might even learn some of the history to… to… well, why you died. All of that history is in the Chamber of Secrets down there. The student who caused your death, Tom Riddle, is Lord Voldemort," Harry informed her hesitantly. He didn't know how exactly she'd take it.

Gliding past him and over to the sink that housed the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, Myrtle spun around to face them. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she wailed.

Harry sighed and wondered if he was going to regret offering to let her come along soon. Hermione seemed to be keeping her comments to herself as Harry looked at the snake on the faucet handle. Willing it to be real, he spoke in Parseltongue.

Immediately the entrance opened up exactly as Harry had remembered from his second year. When the path to the Chamber was open, Harry smiled and looked over at Hermione. "After you," he said with a snicker.

After glaring at him, Hermione headed down into the Chamber with Harry following right behind. Myrtle had the easiest ride of all because she easily floated down, following Harry closely. They landed in a small room that Harry remembered quite well.

"This is where-" Hermione started.

"Your beloved Lockhart tried to Obliviate us, yes," finished Harry as he looked around. "Luckily Ron had broken his wand at the beginning of the year…"

Hermione ignored Harry's comment about her and Lockhart and was concentrating on another problem. "And how are we going to move that without causing another rock slide?" she asked.

Looking to where Hermione was, Harry stopped himself from slapping his forehead in disgust. He had entirely forgotten about the cave in that had sealed the traditional entrance. "I… uh… forgot about that," stammered Harry at a complete loss. "We could levitate the rocks one by one out of the way."

"Clearly," Hermione replied to his original comment dryly. "But that could cause another cave in and in case you hadn't noticed this whole area is a cave. We'd be crushed."

"We don't know if the rocks are supporting the ceiling," commented Harry as he moved closer and tried to see the top. "I can't tell."

"I can tell you!" Myrtle perked up. Before either Harry or Hermione could say anything she had floated through the stack of rocks and vanished from view.

"Err… well you can't say it was a bad idea to bring her along now, can you?" Harry said as he tried to make conversation while they waited for the ghost to return.

Hermione laughed and smiled. "I suppose not," she sighed. "I can't wait until I can see the inside of that Chamber. You never really did tell me what sort of historical artifacts were in there."

Harry grinned. "Well, at the time I was running for my life from a gigantic Basilisk that could kill with just its gaze while dodging the spirit of Tom Riddle and trying to save Ginny's life. I didn't have much time for sight seeing."

"Which is why I plan to document the things in the Chamber. They date back centuries to the time of the original founders and only you and Voldemort have set foot in it," Hermione explained.

"Just remember what we're really going in here for, ok?" sighed Harry as he arched an eyebrow at the witch.

"Of course, we're going to see how long it takes before you get bored of my taking notes."

Harry was spared having to think of a good retort by Myrtle's return. "It isn't supporting anything," Myrtle said glumly. Harry couldn't tell why this was bad news.

"Great work," Harry said with a grin as he took out his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," he stated with his wand pointing at a small rock near the top. The rock floated ever so slightly and Harry directly it slowly off of the stack and placed it beside him. "This is going to take a while," he sighed.

* * *

There was a very subdued feeling in the Great Hall during breakfast and the handing out of schedules. It was partly due to the fact that only a third of the students had returned to Hogwarts, but the other half was because, despite all her efforts, Professor McGonagall did not maintain the same enthusiasm and charisma that Dumbledore had.

Luna Lovegood didn't really mind that much. She was never close with anyone in her dorm and didn't have any actual friends until her fourth year. Now she was seated beside Sarah Potter, a second year who was looking nervously around at the others at the table. Only one student older than Luna had returned and that was Terry Boot, a seventh year now.

From Luna's own year only two students remained and both were seated across from her, though closer to the head table. One was Celeste Blair, who thankfully had no relation to the muggle Prime Minister. This family of Blairs was pureblooded and even if their relative was Prime Minister, they'd never admit it. Celeste herself was the one who decided in their first year to start the annual tradition of hiding Luna's belongings and was even the one responsible for the nickname 'Loony Lovegood', not to say that it took any creativity to come up with it. Celeste had short black hair, much like Rose Bidwell's, but with piercing crystal blue eyes.

The other was a boy with sandy blond hair and a generally happy look about himself. Willis Sawyer was a half-blood that had, strangely enough, not treated Luna unfairly in anyway though he did choose to hang out with the rest of their year and outcast her all the same. The most memorable thing about Willis was his gentle features and attitude. Once he had even given Luna hints as to where her possessions were hidden, but Luna being Luna was already a few steps ahead of them and had already tracked them down, but was thankful for his help all the same.

There were quite a few fifth years in Ravenclaw and numerous other students of younger years in all houses, most likely sent by those parents who figured that Hogwarts would still, despite all that had happened there in recent years, be the safest place for them.

Professor Flitwick came by just as Luna was finishing her breakfast and handed Luna her timetable. Unsurprisingly all students from each hours of that year would be taking classes together due to the small number of students. This would also give the teachers a lot more free time for independent projects, or in McGonagall's case, Luna knew, working for the Order of the Phoenix and the fight against Voldemort.

Luna and Sarah stood up together and headed towards the great doors. Since Harry had asked her to keep on eye on Sarah, which she would have done anyways, Luna wasn't going to let Sarah out of her sight.

"Miss Potter! Miss Potter!" called out a voice that sounded out of breath. Both Luna and Sarah turned to see Professor Slughorn hurrying up as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him. "Miss Potter, I'm glad I caught up to you before your classes! I'm sorry I couldn't get to see you on the train, but of course I was needed here instead."

"Err… hello… _sir_," replied Sarah, adding the last part on as she remembered she was at school.

"Please," Slughorn said jovially, "forget the fancy titles. Harry and I were good friends. I suppose he talks about me often, does he?"

"Not really. I don't think he's mentioned you all summer…"

"Oh? Well, I suspect he's been busy and all," continued the Potions Professor, obviously not to be deterred. "Harry was one of my favorites and my best potions student all last year and- Oh my!"

It took Luna a moment to notice that Slughorn had now turned to her and was rambling sometime. She had begun daydreaming again while taking in the conversation. Such simple things as conversations always bored her so she had to amuse herself with other things while listening. However, this seemed to come off with some certain side effects.

"Miss Lovegood! I remember you from my Christmas party last year… you went with Harry. How lovely… and now you're here with his adopted daughter," Slughorn continued as his eyes darted between Sarah and Luna. "Has Harry found a steady girlfriend, then?" he asked. "I must ask you both if you'd be interesting in getting together for dinner with some other students this Friday."

Luna wasn't really listening though; she had slipped into thought again. This wasn't like her typical dreamy state, however. It was one that had really gotten her picked on early in her Hogwarts life. _Mummy_… she mentally wept as memories of her mother came back.

_"Come on, Luna! I can't wait all day! You have what I've been working on," her mother called from the basement of their small house._

_Happily, Luna bounded down the stairs to see her mother, who looked nearly identical to her, only older, was getting ready to cast a spell at a vase she had set up on a stool. "Ok, mummy. Show me!"_

_"Now stand back…" Lola Lovegood said happily as she turned back to the vase. She raised her wand…_

"Not that I know of," Sarah said slowly. It snapped Luna out of her daydream. "He keeps his love life private," she continued with a tone of finality. Harry would have been impressed.

It took only a slight second for Luna to realize that she had been giving Slughorn a look of complete disinterest and was getting an equally confused look in return. Over the professor's shoulder she could see Pansy Parkinson shooting her a jealous glare and whispering to Theodore Nott.

"Really? That's too bad. I thought you two made such a wonderful couple at my Christmas party. Gwenog Jones, captain of the Holyhead Harpies, usually sends me two tickets to her games. It would be perfect for a couple of young kids," commented Slughorn as he turned his attention back to Luna. "Still, both of you must come to my office, Friday at 9. I won't accept no for an answer!"

Slughorn left before Sarah or Luna could say anything otherwise and was replaced by Clifford Lestrange. Luna recognized the boy as the dark haired one from Sarah's birthday party.

"Hi, Sarah," he said shyly. "I'm glad you decided to come back this year. None of my other friends did."

"Hey Cliff," replied Sarah cheerfully. "No one of my age besides you is back either, but Rose and Luna are here."

There was a shout by one of the Slytherin Prefects which caused Cliff to sigh sadly. "I've gotta go," he said glumly. "I'll see in Transfiguration!" he added happily as he departed. The Prefect reprimanded him immediately, causing Sarah to sigh unhappily.

"Why don't they just leave them alone?" she asked.

"It's the way they are," Luna explained while she dreamily watched Pansy Parkinson.

When the two Ravenclaws were out of the Great Hall, Sarah went up the steps to her right towards Transfiguration while Luna herself went to the left and headed towards Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was interested in seeing who the new teacher was since Professor McGonagall had neglected to mention it in the start of term announcements. She was humming 'Weasley is Our King' to herself and minding her own business when her legs suddenly came up from underneath her and caused her to fall to the floor face first. A shrill laughter followed her trip to the cool stone floor.

Blinking and getting to her feet slowly, Luna turned around to see Pansy standing there, flanked by both Nott and Smith, with her hands on her hips. "Next time, you miserable blood traitor, you won't be able to get so easily, if at all," Pansy said with a sneer reminiscent of Draco Malfoy.

Tilting her head to the side, Luna gazed at her. "You know, everyone was right. It _does_ look like Trifolump's," she commented lazily.

"It _what_?" Pansy said, not quite understanding.

"Your nose. A Trifolump looks like a common pig, but has wings. It does look similar. Perhaps daddy could write an interesting article… do you have a Trifolump blood in you? They're really rare-" Her mind wandered to what she had read about Trifolumps and how her father was trying to find proof of their existence.

"How _dare_ you!" shrieked Pansy as she drew her wand and fired off a hex.

Unlike for simple brain tasks like conversations, Luna used her full attention for dueling. Almost immediately she produced a shield charm which sent the spell harmlessly into the ceiling. Her dreamy demeanor always made her opponents underestimate her, but if you looked closely when she was dueling, you might spot a fire in her silver eyes. It was, perhaps, the only positive to her daydreaming habit.

"I suggest you stop right there, Miss Parksinson, or I shall have to deduct points from Slytherin… though this early I am doubtful that they have any points at all."

Pansy turned to see who dared to interrupted her. She nearly jumped out of her skin. "D-D-Dumbledore? But you're… d-d-"

"Dead?" offered Dumbledore with a small smile. "Unfortunately my dear brother, Albus, passed away two months ago, but I assure you I am quite alive." There was a small smile one Aberforth Dumbledore's face that was so very like his brother's.

"Oh," Pansy said stupidly. She motioned for Nott and Zacharias to follow her down to the Charms classroom.

"I believe, Miss Lovegood, that we both have Defense Against the Dark Arts, but in different roles."

* * *

Harry and Hermione stopped to rest after all the rocks had been cleared away from the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. It had taken the two of them nearly all morning due to the fact that they had to go slowly and make sure they didn't cause a cave in by accident. Neither of them was going to risk their lives solely on the words of a depressed and overly emotional ghost.

It was nearly lunch time, or rather when all the students would be eating lunch in the Great Hall, so they both took a moment to eat the sandwiches they had packed. "I know it's none of my business, but I care about you both. How are things with Ron? And your parents?" Harry asked offhand.

Hermione swallowed her mouthful slowly and sighed. "My parents don't want me to stay apart of the Wizarding World. It took over five days to fill them in on everything and convince them that I have to stay and fight, but they think that since I'm a muggleborn I can just back out whenever I want. They of course knew about all the strange disappearances in the north, but were willing to go to America or Australia to protect me." She took a small sip of water from the glass she had hovering in the air beside her. "The only reason they let me go back is because I told them I could prevent the whole thing." She sighed and took another bite, chewed and swallowed. "Ron's good though, you know. I think he's really maturing… oh don't look so shocked. He's capable of maturing too."

Harry grinned and thought back to what Remus had told him about James and Sirius. _Ok, I guess she's right. Everyone can mature to some degree…_ They finished the rest of the sandwiches in silence and proceeded to the snake engraved door that marked the actual entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Now… you're sure that thing is dead?" ask Hermione nervously, looking re-assurance.

"Oh definitely not. It might be waiting right on the other side of the door for us. These things can survive swords driven through their skulls, didn't you read that?" Harry told her and she concentrated on the snakes. "_Open_," he commanded. The door began to slide open. Something horrible was waiting for them, but it wasn't a living Basilisk.

Harry immediately gagged and rushed off to the side. He threw up seconds later and heard Hermione having similar problems a few feet beside him. Moaning Myrtle floated around their heads wondering what was wrong. Harry staggered over towards the door, coughing and trying to keep his eyes from watering any worse than they already were. "_C-c-clo-close_," he sputtered at the door. There was a slide grinding sound as the ancient door closed back into place.

While the smell of a rotting carcass in a damp cave didn't entirely disappear, it was somewhat bearable. "Do… do you believe me that it is dead, now?" Harry asked sarcastically as he took out his wand to clean off the front of his invisibility cloak.

"Oh shut up," snapped Hermione as she did the same. "Why didn't you think of that?"

"Me?" Harry asked incredulously. "_You're_ the one that thinks of everything…" he snapped back before sighing. "Now what?"

The witch shook her head in disbelief. "I really do have to think of everything, don't I?" She pointed her wand at her head and. Without speaking any words, a large clear bubble appeared around her head.

"Right. Bubblehead charm," muttered Harry, feeling quite embarrassed. He copied the spell and then turned back to the door. "Ready?"

"This time, yes," Hermione sighed.

"_Open_," Harry hissed once again. The door creaked open once more. This time no barrage of decaying stenches reached his nostrils. The two of them, followed by Moaning Myrtle entered the Chamber of Secrets.

The first thing they noticed was the rotting remains of a giant snake lying sprawled out on the ground just like Harry remembered. "Shouldn't it be decomposed already?" Harry asked.

"Yes… it should be… but… I don't know, maybe its magic?" suggested Hermione offhand. Anyone could tell she was wracking her brain for a plausible answer. "I'd have to look it up." She took out her quill and parchment and began making notes on the Basilisk carcass as well as some of the small serpent statues they passed while they headed up towards the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin himself.

"You know, we're here to find the Horcrux, not make notes on statues," commented Harry, irritated by the sound of Hermione's continually scratching quill.

Hermione crossed her arms and frowned. "Perhaps you can tell me exactly what we're looking for, then."

Harry's cheeks went red. "I'm not sure and you know it, but it'll be obvious when we see it."

"Right, and in the mean time while we're looking around I'm going to take notes on everything. It might be important," she stated matter-of-factly. "Besides, it would make an interesting chapter in Hogwarts: A History-"

"In which you want to write, I get it, I get it," Harry said as he looked across the small pool of water in front of the giant Slytherin statue. There was the statue's mouth, which Harry knew is where the Basilisk emerged from at one time, that opened somehow. _And an ideal place to keep a Horcrux. Behind the sleeping place of a giant serpent that can kill anyone who it looks at and only the true heir of Slytherin, himself, could control…_

Harry approached the edge of the war hesitantly. He really didn't want to swim in whatever slimy sewer water was in here, but it looked as if he had no choice.

"Oh move over," Hermione said, giving an exasperated sigh. She pointed her wand at the water directly in front of Salazar's mouth. "Are you a Wizard or aren't you?" she said smugly. "Glacius," she said loudly despite having a perfect grasp on non-verbal spells. There was a sound of crackling and freezing water as a small strip of ice appeared from the edge of the pool to the opposite side and the Slytherin statue.

"Ten points for Gryffindor," Harry said, giving her a Snape like sneer. "I just had to bring the genius…" he muttered as he stuck a foot out and pressed down. The ice seemed to hold.

Apparently Hermione sensed his hesitation. "Well if it _doesn't_ hold, you'll get wet, but you were about to do that anyways, weren't you?"

Harry nodded and put his full weight on the ice. There were a few slight cracking sounds, but nothing major happened. He decided that sprinting across would be better so he took off at a full run despite how hard it was to get traction. He made it across without further incident and looked back across to wait for Hermione to cross, however the bushy-haired witch seemed content on scribbling down more notes, rather than crossing the ice bridge. Harry cleared his throat with a loud 'ahem'. Hermione looked up. "Aren't you coming?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Over that thing? No way. Let me know if you find something important back there." She looked back at her parchment and was taking more notes on the objects in the chamber and the rotting Basilisk carcass in particular.

Harry grumbled as he ducked his head down and entered Slytherin's throat. After a few feet he swished his wand and lit the tip up in a simple 'Lumos' spell. The tunnel went farther down than he had expected. Even with his light source extended as far as his arm could stretch he could not see the end of the tunnel. He didn't really have any concerns until the smooth stone began to slope downwards and he found it hard to keep his footing since the floor was, like everything else in the Chamber, somehow still damp.

He slowly edged his way closer and closer as the downward angle became more and more sharp. With another shuffled footstep he slipped and tumbled down the remaining length of the 'throat' and landed with a crack on the cool, wet floor below. There was a painful jolt up his arm and he groaned, knowing instantly that it was broken. After he retrieved his wand with a quick summoning charm and re-lit it, he noticed that his arm was dangling down from the precise location where the Basilisk had sunk it's fang into him the last time he was down here.

It was only when he slowly got to his feet and bit his lip, trying not to think about the pain, that he noticed he was in a small square room that was a solid emerald green, though still made of stone. On the far side was something that chilled Harry to the bone. He approached the small ceremonial bench in a mix of anticipation, surprise and general fear. Sitting clutched in serpent's head stands were two eggs the size of a regular human's head. The serpent stand on the left contained nothing which confirmed Harry's fear.

_Basilisk eggs… but… that's impossible._ Harry knew it couldn't be true, but there was no reason to believe otherwise. He remembered, nearly word for word, the page of the book Hermione had clutched in her hand at the end of second year. _A Basilisk is born by hatching a chicken's egg underneath a toad._ These were clearly not chicken's eggs and nor were there any toads around. As he leaned in for a closer look at the eggs, which were a pale yellow color, he noticed they had a small red shimmer to them which seemed to be coming from the teeth of the serpent's stand. _Preservation_, Harry thought, his mind reeling.

He raised his wand higher to the wall above the ceremonial bench. There were words written on the wall above.

_If the Serpent King's Heir wishes for power, simply speak open and you shall receive._

_Power… there's got to be another part of the room here with something Slytherin deemed important. If Slytherin thought it was important, Voldemort would have too_! His mind was racing and he could have sworn his heart was skipping a beat. "_Open_!" he hissed as loud as he could in Parseltongue. He looked around and waited for a large passageway to open up or something else amazing to happen. There was a very odd 'shink' sound from right in front of him and he recoiled back a few steps, his broken army flailing slightly with the quick movement.

The center serpent's head stand had retracted its teeth and the Basilisk egg it was clutching was no longer giving off the dull red shimmer. The egg itself was shaking every few seconds as if... _It's about to hatch!_ _How could I be… be so stupid_, he thought angrily. He wasn't quite sure what to do, but he awkwardly grabbed the egg from the stand and kept it held against his body with his broken forearm as he hurried back over to the pipe. Looking up at the pipe in which he had fallen down, Harry realized he couldn't climb up in the current state. The rattling of the Basilisk egg against his body made him panic even more. _Are you a Wizard or aren't you_, he thought as a small grin crept on to his face. He pointed his wand with his good arm at his feet and wordlessly cast the levitation charm.

Navigating himself through a pipe in which he had to duck to enter in the first place was hard work. Harry ended up hitting his head on the roof many times before he managed to get to where he could walk again. He hurried along the pipe and slide out of the giant Salazar Slytherin statue's mouth and on to Hermione's flimsy ice bridge, which seemed to be melting. He slid to the other side just in time as the ice began to break apart. "Hermione!" he called, breathing faster and faster as the egg under his arm began to continually shake.

Hermione emerged from one of the pipes that lead off to the side of the main chamber. When she saw Harry she gasped. "Harry! Your arm and-" her eyes widened even more. "Is that… no that's impossible!"

"It obviously is possible and not everything you read in books is right," Harry snapped back. This wasn't the time to argue as the egg gave a big lurch which was followed by a cracking sound. "What do we do?"

"_Are you a Wizard or aren't you?_" Hermione nearly yelled as she hurried across the room and knocked the egg from Harry's grip. It fell to the floor, but didn't break. Instead a large fracture appeared near the top as the young Basilisk began to hatch. Hermione had other ideas. "_Reducto_!" she cried to give the spell more power. The jet of light hit the egg and exploded it in a shower of thick shell and a bunch of pulp that looked like the remains of the young Basilisk. A few seconds later, after both Harry and Hermione had calmed down, Hermione smiled. "That wasn't so hard. By the stories you told you made it sound at least somewhat difficult."

Harry could only stare at her for a few moments before shaking his head sadly. "I hope you learned that books can be wrong, sometimes. There's another egg down there too that we'll have to destroy."

"Another one? That's amazing. Those eggs have to date back to the time of the founders. That egg was hatching… is it time released?" Hermione continued to spew a bunch of questions and thoughts as her quill and parchment and began to scribble down a bunch of things she wanted to look up next time she had access to a library.

"Um, Hermione? Perhaps we can quit for today and maybe get my arm fixed," Harry asked weakly. The pain was starting to catch up to him now.

"Oh! Merlin, Harry. You're quite pale. Let's get you Madam Pomfrey. It'll be quick," Hermione exclaimed as she remembered that Harry was in fact injured.

"No," Harry said flatly. "That would raise too many questions. Let's just get back to the Beacon."

"I guess Susan is looking for something to do, anyways," Hermione sighed. "I see the Light."

Both of the Gryffindors blinked when nothing happened. "The wards at Hogwarts?" Harry suggested. "But no… we've used Portkeys from Hogwarts before, like that stupid Triwizard Tournament trophy."

Hermione looked agitated. "There's no time to argue, let's just hurry back outside the grounds and Apparate back if that's what you want to do. Maybe they added some wards to block portkeys." She grabbed Harry's good arm and dragged him towards the exit. "And just where did Myrtle get to anyways?"

"Maybe there was something gloomier than down here," Harry muttered as he bit his lip due to the pain.

* * *

Harry and Hermione returned to the Chamber of Secrets for the next two days and after they destroyed the remaining Basilisk egg they scoured the rest of the Chamber with a fine tooth comb for any traces of a Horcrux. However, they continued to come up empty handed and Harry felt that they'd have to expand their search to the rest of Hogwarts.

Unfortunately the Slytherin common room and dungeons were next on Harry's list, but he wasn't sure how to go about getting in there. He wanted to ask McGonagall, but he knew that might be stretching things quite a bit. Still, he resigned himself to ask. A small thought that Harry kept in the back of his mind was that searching Hogwarts for a Horcrux was like finding a needle in a haystack. It would undoubtedly be hidden and have possibly deadly enchantments on it, but he tried not to get too discouraged.

At the current moment Harry was seated behind his desk again and reading a letter from Sarah. It was a simple, generic letter, designed to make anyone but he reading it not know its true purpose. He flipped the letter over to the blank side and did a revealing spell. There was only a single word written on the back.

_Sanctuary_

It was how Harry and Sarah had discussed prior to the Hogwarts express. She would send him a small letter and have Luna cast a spell on the opposite side to hide all writing. This was one word, Harry knew, was the current password to the Ravenclaw tower. _It would help if I actually knew where the Ravenclaw tower was, though_, Harry sighed. Well, it wasn't like he was having too much success searching elsewhere in the castle and the entire Ravenclaw section still had to be checked over. _Possibly a relic of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw_, Dumbledore had said.

The next day Harry traveled alone to Hogwarts. Ginny and Ron were on the prowl in the village of Ottery St. Catchpole after it Mr. Weasley had commented that there was probable Death Eater activity there. Arthur had also confided that Mrs. Weasley would be furious if she knew that he was willingly passing information to Harry and the others specifically so they could go out and endanger themselves.

Neville had taken to watching the mirrors that reported images continually from the spy cubes they had set up in key places in Diagon Alley as well as Knockturn Alley. Of course Susan had also stayed behind and continued to work on extra potions and practicing an increasing number of medical related spells. Harry also suspected that Neville and Susan had chosen to stay behind at the Beacon because there was something beginning between them. Harry himself had rarely been at the house over the last few days, but he still noticed that Neville and Susan seemed to exit and enter rooms together.

Hermione had found a way to duplicate the white robes the Order of Light wore into battle. However, with the duplication charm the robes lost all their enchantments such as automatic sizing and the temperature moderation charm. She was busy re-applying these and later planned to deliver them to the Weasley twins as well as Moody, Tonks and Remus.

It was probably a good thing that Harry had chosen to come to Ravenclaw Tower alone rather than with Hermione, his usual accomplice for Hogwarts Horcrux searching. It had become rather painfully obvious that Hermione and Luna would not get along. Hermione, for all her intelligence, completely ignored any probability that Luna was right in anything she said. On the other hand, Luna, for all her compassion and understanding of people and acceptance of differences, would not back down when Hermione blatantly challenged her opinions. While Harry couldn't blame the Ravenclaw, the bickering between the two girls had grown tiresome and just annoying. He wished that both of them would drop it.

It was late in the evening when Harry arrived at Ravenclaw Tower. Ron and Ginny were positioned in Ottery St. Catchpole to catch any Death Eaters that wandered in the area and Neville, Hermione and Susan remained at Headquarters. Harry was surprised that he actually found the common room entrance without trouble. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, it was in virtually the same place the Gryffindor common room's entrance was, only on the west side of the castle. Instead of a painting, Ravenclaw had a suit of armor that was clutching a sword at its side.

"_Sancutary_," Harry said clearly to the suit of armor, though he was still under the invisibility cloak.

The armor nodded and slide to the side, pedestal and all, to reveal a small entryway that Harry had to duck to enter. Harry's first thought of the Ravenclaw common room was that it was blue. From sky blue to navy blue to baby blue, it seemed to have it all. It was also far more pleasant than the million shades of green the Slytherin common room possessed. He also figured that he'd have to eventually set foot in the Hufflepuff common room to compare all four.

Harry spotted Sarah and Luna sitting alone on a couch in the center of the room reading the latest edition of _The Quibbler_. He had been told in confidence by Luna earlier that this exact issue would deal with another Crumple-Horned Snorkack sighting in Sweden. He tip-toed as quietly as he could until he reached the couch and took a seat on one of the arms. The two girls didn't seem to notice, being engrossed as they were in the Snorkack article. "Interesting read?" Harry asked offhand as he let the hood fall off his invisibility cloak.

Much to Harry's disappointment, neither Sarah nor Luna looked surprised as they look over at him. "Yeah! I can't wait until we actually find the Snorkacks!"

As much as Harry doubted it would ever happen, he gave Sarah a smile. "Well, I suppose eventually they'll have to be found. Anyways, what's been happening?"

"Nothing much," Sarah said gloomily. "No one is here anymore."

"Except than one boy that is quite smitten with you," Luna stated dreamily. "He doesn't believe in Snorkacks or the Rotfang conspiracy…"

This comment caused Harry's eyes to widen. "Boyfriend?" he asked meekly.

"No! Well… maybe I guess. He's a boy and my friend…" Harry noticed immediately that his daughter's cheeks were going pink. "But still, Luna isn't telling you about Willis Sawyer! He seems to like her quite a bit!"

"Is he? I didn't notice," Luna dismissed the thought serenely. "That Pansy Parkinson is clearly part Trifolump. After she tripped me the other day I noticed. I plan to track her down and get evidence for father to print."

Harry assumed that by this Luna meant she'd be trying to find out of Pansy was up to anything, but with Luna you could never be too sure. He had also learned not to bother asking what Trifolumps were, though he strongly suspected they were some form of rare magical creature. He talked with Sarah and Luna a bit longer and was quite surprised to find that Aberforth Dumbledore was the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He was less surprised to find out that Slughorn had approached both of the girls and asked them to join the Slug Club, but he knew that Slughorn was rather harmless.

After Sarah and Luna went to bed as it was already past midnight, Harry searched around the Ravenclaw common room for any sign of Horcruxes. He sighed heavily when he searched what seemed to be the fifth large book case. _What is with all these books? If Hermione was a Ravenclaw she'd never have left her common room_… The sigh wasn't only due to the large amount of reading material present, but because Harry's patience was already wearing thin. Hogwarts was massive and the chances of finding a Horcrux were incredibly small. Even if he did stumble upon it, how would he recognize it?

Harry didn't dare search the dormitories. He'd leave that to Luna when she had the time, but the common room turned up absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. _What exactly am I expecting, anyways? Do I think there will be some sort of huge dark aura surrounding it or something?_ The Diary, he knew, looked as common as anything else. Gaunt's Ring, Dumbledore had said, gave off a magical aura, but Harry didn't know if this was felt by anyone who came near it or if Dumbledore had done some sort of detection spell. The problem was, even if Harry knew a detection spell for finding magical items, it would be useless in an environment such as Hogwarts where nearly everything was magical including the walls themselves.

He was about to head down to the dungeons to continue his futile search when a black falcon landed on his shoulder, having approached from his back. He jumped slightly, and then breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that it was only delivering a letter. Harry quickly untied the note and read it.

_Potter,_

_We have your filthy muggle aunt and uncle. To spare their lives you will give yourself up without a fight. You have until 2 am this morning to make your appearance at the muggle church in Ottery St. Catchpole. Come alone. We know you have two members of your pathetic, so called 'Order' in the area. If you decide to bring support or contact those two in anyway, they'll die too._

The note was unsigned, but already Harry was panicking. _They found the Dursleys… but where?_ He quickly checked his watch and saw it was 1:13 am already. He silently cursed the slow raven and took off at a full sprint down the corridors towards the main doors. He didn't care if Filch heard his footsteps and came to investigate since he knew the squib would never be able to find him while he was wearing his invisibility cloak.

Harry reached the Hogwarts gates fifteen minutes later and immediately Apparated back to the Beacon. Upon rushing into the house, he saw that Neville was dozing peacefully in front of the mirrors and Hermione had already gone to bed. He ran up to his room and, despite being mostly out of breath, blew into his dragon horn with all his might.

The reaction was immediately. Within half a minute Neville, Hermione and Susan were all struggling through the doorway to his room looking confused and tired. "There's a situation in Ottery St. Catchpole-"

"Ron and Ginny?" Hermione exclaimed nervously.

"No, my aunt and uncle. They've been kidnapped and want me to exchange myself for them in Ottery St. Catchpole. Alone, of course. They said they'd kill my aunt and uncle as well as Ron and Ginny, though I don't think they've been caught, if I don't come alone or try to warn them," explained Harry in one breath as he struggled to get on his white robes.

"So we're coming with you," Neville said.

"Of course, we can use the invisibility cloaks and the Death Eaters won't even know we're there," finalized Hermione. Harry had a bad feeling about Neville and Hermione coming, but there wasn't time to argue as he handed Neville the invisibility cloak he had taken to Hogwarts. "Fine, whatever. Susan, I need you to stay here in case Ron and Ginny come back."

The Hufflepuff nodded as Harry led the invisible Hermione and Neville out to the back of the Beacon. With three distinct pops they three of them departed to the one place they had visual knowledge of: right beside the cinema which overlooked the main street. Ron and Ginny had placed one of Fred and George's spy cubes in the area just last night.

The three of them sprinted towards the lone church. The lights that usually remained on, according to Ron and Ginny, were off, which made Harry worry even more. When they reached the large wooden doors, Harry stopped them.

"You should probably let me go in alone," he explained. "If we all go in they may notice somehow. You should be able to hear what's going on inside or perhaps you can sneak in the back and take out some of them."

Hermione and Neville nodded and set out in different directions heading around the building. Harry sighed, wondering where exactly Ron and Ginny were. While he wanted

With a slight struggle, Harry pulled open one of the doors and entered. The main hall of the church was vacant, save for many rows of vacant pews and the typical altar up at the front of the room. The only source of light came from an old metal chandelier that was hung from the tall ceiling by chains. All six candles were lit and cast eerie shadows about the room. Along the back there was an old wooden staircase leading up to a balcony above the altar.

However, there was no sound at all and the lump in Harry's stomach grew heavier. _I did it again. I feel for the same trap again… they didn't get the Dursleys… this is just like the Department of Mysteries all over_. He felt like crying, but he knew that wouldn't do any good.

"Potter, I believe we said to come alone." Three figures had emerged from the backroom, which Harry suspected belonged to the pastor or whoever ran the church. The two flanking Death Eaters were masked, but the one in the center, who Harry knew all too well now, was unmasked.

The flickering candle light only made his face even more horrifying, but Harry assumed that was his intention. It was also working. Harry felt a lump rise in this throat. "I… I am alone. I never talked to the two people in the area."

"Liar," sneered Rodolphus Lestrange. "Don't think we don't know of your two friends under those precious invisibility cloaks of yours." Obviously Harry's facial expression betrayed him. "Yes, don't you think that we have ways of detecting such pathetic attempts at trickery?"

"My aunt and uncle! Release them!" Harry said, panicked again and trying to swallow the lump in his throat. _Why am I so stupid?_ He wanted to hurt himself.

Rodolphus and the two other masked Death Eaters laughed. "No. You violated the contract, not us. The Dark Lord will be pleased that we can deliver him a bunch of bodies rather than just one."

Harry frantically looked around for some means of escape or to warn Neville and Hermione. His glances didn't go unnoticed.

"My darling wife will be disappointed that I get to finish you off and not her. I wish I could share the pleasure with her, but unfortunately she doesn't find me attractive anymore." Rodolphus Lestrange sounded bitter and smug at the same time. "I can only hope that little blonde girl happens to be under one of those invisibility cloaks. Revenge on you and her on the same day would make it perfect-"

"You have me!" exclaimed Harry angrily. "Let everyone else go! Let them all go and I'll come no questions asked."

"It doesn't work like that, Potter. You broke the agreement already-"

"No!"

"I think it's time we show you what happens when you don't play by our rules."

"Wait!"

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

To be continued…


	12. A MultiDementional Battle

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 12 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Jane wrote the summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching, whatever that may be.

A/N - Quest of Light is classified under "Suspense" for a reason.

**Warning**: If you've wondered why this story is rated M, you'll find out this chapter. The darker side of Quest of Light will be making an appearance this chapter and it will be here to stay. This is a story about a war in which Voldemort's side is actually competent unlike many other fanfics. If you don't like topics such as death, torture, murder, depression, madness, anger etc. etc. you may way to stop reading.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 12**

**A Multi-Dementional battle**

_"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends." - Luna Lovegood, HBP_

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

Harry closed his eyes and waited for the sound of speeding death. He knew it was over. He hadn't even seen Rodolphus or the other two Death Eaters draw their wands and he had no chance to move out of the way. An unfitting end, he thought, but he only hoped the rest of his friends managed to get away. Two seconds passed. Two long seconds. There was a high pitched female scream that caused Harry to open his eyes.

The scream came from the balcony where Harry saw a large mass tumble over the railing and land on the floor with a thud. The woman screamed again. Harry recognized it as his Aunt Petunia, which meant the large dead body on the floor, the one that had been hit with the Killing Curse, was none other than his Uncle Vernon.

"Save me!" Petunia screamed at the top of her voice. She struggled with the black robed figure that was restraining her. With a kick to the man's groin, Harry's aunt was free and began to run. She never made it more than five steps before the second Death Eater on the balcony, the one who had murdered Vernon Dursley, raised his wand a second time.

"_Avada Kedavra_!" There was a flash of green light from the balcony far above which illuminated the entire church for a brief moment. Aunt Petunia's screaming stopped abruptly and Harry knew that the worst had happened.

Rage boiled up in Harry as his hands balled into fists. "YOU BASTARDS!" he screamed, not quiteANSWER A QUE knowing what else to say. "THEY WERE MUGGLES! THEY WERE INNOCENT! I'LL KILL BOTH OF YOU!" He slammed his hand into the pocket of his robes and withdrew his wand. Training it quickly on Rodolphus Lestrange, he fired the nastiest(non-unforgivable) spell that he knew of. "_SECTUMSEMPRA_!"

Rodolphus Lestrange and the two other masked Death Eaters dove to the sides to avoid Harry's preemptive strike, perhaps having their own vision obscured by the flash of the Avada Kedavra and the shadows caused by the flickering candles. Harry's curse soared above the scattered Death Eaters and hit the wall near a giant wooden cross at the back of the room. There was a splintering sound as the wall began to crack.

Before Harry could track where the three figures had fled to, a red flash of light came from the balcony and pinged off the stone floor to his left. He dodged to the right and nearly collided with one of the pews. A split second later there was a bright orange flash and Harry was hit in the chest by a spell cast from a few feet in front of him.

Immediately it was hard to breath. Harry's chest was tight and contracting painfully as if his ribs had decided to shrink a few sizes too small in a heart beat. He found himself trying to take deep breaths, but only managed to get a small amount of oxygen into his lungs each time. His hand clutched his heart and he wondered if the curse had induced a heart attack, because it sure felt like his lungs and heart themselves were on fire. After a few moments of trying to breathe Harry sank to his knees as his vision started to cloud. Light headedness made it hard to think… but it was all ok… he'd just lie down to rest. He dropped his wand next to his leg and began slumping to the side… it would all be ok if he could sleep. Abruptly as the curse had hit him it ended. Harry took one large gulp of air, relishing the feeling of the stale, warm air in his lungs. He shook his head to clear it as his eyes began to refocus.

"When I tell you what will happen, you will listen!" spat Lestrange. "Next time that feeling will be permanent!" Harry had just enough time to look up at the blurry figure of the Death Eater as Rodolphus twitched his wrist.

Something that felt like a giant club had just collided with Harry's jaw sending shooting pains straight to his brain. He was lifted up off the ground and pitched backwards a few feet before landing painfully on his back. His head snapped back causing the back of his skull to make contact with the stone floor. He quickly sat up and nearly threw up from dizziness. _Concussion… great_, he groaned and winced as he saw Rodolphus Lestrange pointing his wand directly at him again.

There was a bang near the back of the room that momentarily distracted Rodolphus, causing him to look over his shoulder. "Rabastan! You've got one. Good."

Harry made his move. He stuck out his arm and tried to summon his wand to his hand. His wand began to move, but Harry found himself being flung up into the air again. Instead of hitting the ground again, which he was already wincing and ready for, he remind upside down suspended by his ankle.

"Since you're such a fan of the so called Half-Blood Prince's spells…" Rodolphus basically cackled with glee as Harry flailed around. "Rabastan, no! Bring her over here- I said over here! He needs to watch!"

With the blood rushing to Harry's already pounding head, he tried to see what was going on. A masked Death Eater was having difficulty doing something, but it wasn't until the hood of the invisibility cloak slipped off that Harry realized that the Death Eater was trying to drag Hermione closer to himself and Rodolphus.

Rodolphus turned back to Harry, his badly scarred and fractured side of his face looked horrible in the candlelight. "Watch!" he commanded as he turned around and pointed his wand at Hermione. She was still struggling with the Death Eater holding her, who Harry assumed to be Rabastan Lestrange. "This is what happens when you try to trick us. _Crucio_!"

Hermione screamed and fell to the ground, though most of her twitching was hidden by the invisibility cloak. Her face was contorted into odd angles as Rodolphus Lestrange kept the jagged red light connection from his wand to Hermione's body intact. As Hermione's screams continued, Rodolphus sneered and broke the connection. "Your turn," he gestured to his brother with overdone motions so that Harry could see them clearly.

Rabastan drew his wand and pointed it at Hermione's quivering and whimpering form on the ground. She was crying freely as the second Lestrange grinned. "_Crucio_!" Hermione's screams punctured the air again. "It's been too long since we've done this."

Harry saw Rodolphus nod. "It's nice to keep the family tradition alive. What do you say," he said and pointed his own wand at Hermione again. "For old times sake?" Rabastan gave a deep laugh and then Rodolphus' voice returned. "_Crucio_!" two jets of light were connected to Hermione's body. Even Harry didn't know what two Cruciatus Curses at once felt like, but he was certain that if he didn't do something to stop this soon Hermione would end up like the Longbottoms.

As if reading his thoughts both Lestranges stopped. "Hear her cry, Potter. Hear her wish to die," Rodolphus sneered, not even looking back at where Harry was still hanging uselessly upside down. Hermione was sobbing still, but what troubled Harry the most was that her eyes looked distant and nearly blank. _Hang in there. Please for the love of all things good hang in there…_

"Crucio!" bellowed one of the Lestranges again. The other soon followed. Harry sprang into action. "It's a shame Bellatrix isn't here to help you, isn't it!" Harry yelled, hoping to provoke a reaction. Rodolphus merely laughed.

"Who cares what that bitch wants?" he sneered, looking back over his shoulder and stopping his Cruciatus Curse. "Do you think I care what Bellatrix wants? Do you?" Harry strongly felt like the answer was yes, but he decided against saying that and the Death Eater turned back and continued his Cruciatus induced torture.

Hermione's screams had long since stopped and Harry could barely see her tears anymore, though his own vision was starting to cloud. His head kept pounding from his probable concussion and the blood flowing entirely to his brain. He wasn't sure how long he had been upside down, but it felt like an eternity. Harry only had one goal, however, and that was to make the Lestranges stop torturing Hermione.

"Wasn't she always the smart one? I wonder what Potter will do without her brains once they've turned to mush," Rabastan sneered directly at Harry while saying this, puncturing the Gryffindor's thoughts.

Rodolphus laughed deeply again, genuinely having fun. "He'll be dead. He won't care."

Harry needed to act. "Are you really jealous that Bellatrix decided to go sleep with Voldemort?" he said angrily to the Lestranges. The reaction was immediate. Rodolphus broke his connection with Hermione and turned to Harry and took a few steps forward. His face was twisted in anger.

"You dare try to mock me you filthy half-blood scum?" Rodolphus spat directly into Harry's face.

When Harry turned his head to the side to avoid the spit, he noticed that Rabastan had stopped using the Cruciatus curse as well and began watching the incident between his brother and Harry. Harry couldn't see any of the other Death Eaters anymore and suspected they were off trying to find Neville if they didn't already have him.

"Obviously I haven't done enough to you if you feel that you can speak to your obvious superior like that," sneered Rodolphus as he raised his wand again.

Though Harry expected the blow, he was still completely unable to block it. He knew as soon as the blunt force spell hit that his nose was broken. Blood was spewing down his face and over his eyes and forehead before dripping to the floor as his body swung backwards, reeling from the force of the blow. Oddly enough, Harry barely felt anything from this one. The pounding sensation that was already exerting on his brain and skull was far worse than whatever broken and bloody nose he had just sustained. His body swung back lazily, still trapped in the air by an invisible shackle around his ankle. The second blow he felt simply because it hit him square in the gut and forced up the contents of his stomach. He spewed them all over the floor in a mixture of half digested food, stomach acid and blood from his nose. He simply began to laugh.

"Lost his mind," Rabastan sneered. "Oh look, Rodolphus," Rabastan said second later, "it looks liked this one over here still has some sort of mind left after all." He jerked a thumb towards Hermione's quivering form.

"Harry…. Harry…" Hermione's words were weak and very soft and Harry wasn't convinced that it was anything more Mrs. Longbottom continually giving Neville gum wrappers.

"Crucio!" Rabastan Lestrange cried again, an evil glee etched on his face as the red light connected with Hermione's body again. Rodolphus turned away from Harry for a moment to watch his brother's continued antics.

There was only one spell or comment that Harry could make to truly make the Lestranges flinch and possibly give Hermione the time to escape, however unlikely that may be. He had no doubts that he'd actually be able to cast the spell given the fact that he didn't want to, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that the Lestranges _thought_ he was casting it. Summoning up some of his remaining strength he bellowed "_Avada Kedavra_!"

The reactions from the Lestranges were immediate, but not fast enough had Harry actually cast the Killing Curse. They both dove to opposite sides behind pews to avoid the flash of green light that never came. The second effect was that Harry plummeted to the ground having been released from the Levicorpus hex. He crashed down onto the stone floor, which he had become quite friendly with, and immediately began to crawl to the nearest row of pews for cover. Fleetingly he looked back at Hermione's body.

The invisibility cloak had slipped off from most of her earlier thrashings allowed Harry to see that Hermione's entire body was trembling. She wasn't making a sound anymore, though her mouth was opening and closing slow as if she was trying to mouth some words that just wouldn't come out. Her eyes looked distant and un-focusing once more complete with unshed tears that seemingly didn't want to fall.

_Hermione… I'm so sorry... but… the ring… why didn't you use the ring?_ Harry fought back his own tears. Absentmindedly he glanced at the white gold ring on his own finger and saw that the initials HG in blazing red. Oddly enough, the initials LL were also in a duller shade of red, which didn't make sense to him at the time seeing as Luna was safely in Ravenclaw Tower, but he didn't have time to think about that. He looked up and back in Hermione's eyes. There was a flicker of recognition in her eyes and she opened her mouth to try and speak, but still no words emerged. A surge of hope flowed through Harry. All he needed to was get to her and use the ring and she would be fine, or so he hoped.

The Death Eaters had other ideas. There was a loud crack as a pew two rows in front of Harry cracked in the middle and spat splinters in all directions under the power of a Reductor curse. "Oh that was clever," Rodolphus mused out loud. He gave a deep chuckle. "Perhaps I underestimated you, Potter. There might be a Slytherin side to you after all. That might save you a bit longer. Your Gryffindor bravado really hasn't worked here now has it?" Harry could almost see Rodolphus sneering. Another pew, this time only one row in front him, met a similar fate. "You can't hide forever."

Unfortunately Harry knew that Rodolphus Lestrange was right. He couldn't hide from them. He instantly thought of Hermione again and the invisibility cloak in a pile covering her legs. _Unless I get an invisibility cloak_. He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his white robes and it came away dark red. It was tender, but now that blood wasn't simply rushing to his head he could think somewhat clearly. Harry stuck out his hand in the direction he had last known his wand to be and silently summoned it to himself successfully.

There was a large explosion and the sound of shattering glass from the far right of the church. One of the giant stained glass windows had shattered and the addition of a large hole in the wall, big enough for five or six people to walk through at a time, had appeared beside the large empty frame. A cool wind swept through the church as wind billowing through the two large holes while three figures immediately dashed through the blown out part of the wall and into the church. One of the white robed figures began to leap over pews and then dove, dodging three spells while he did, across the main aisle in the center of the church and slid into the row directly behind Harry.

"Merlin, what the bloody hell happened to you, mate?" Ron asked in shock as he saw Harry's face.

For the first time Harry looked down at his robes. The front had a large trail of blood and spew down the front of it, while elsewhere there were tears and scuff marks everywhere. "Long story," he grunted as Ron hopped the final pew and ducked down in the same row beside Harry.

"We learned how to heal small stuff for a reason," Ron said, shaking his head in disbelief. He pointed his wand at Harry's face.

Harry felt a little jolt of magical energy hit him square in the face, but he could tell immediately that his nose had stopped bleeding and was probably healing. "Thanks."

Ron shrugged as there was a loud bang on the other side of the room. Neville and Ginny were distracting the Death Eaters quite well by crouching beneath the pews, rising for a few spells and then ducking back down and moving to a new location. Ron went back to examining Harry, but stopped dead when he saw Harry's hand. His eyes widened in horror.

"What?" Harry asked, slightly irritated. He knew that his hand was fine.

"Hermione! Where is she?" asked Ron suddenly. He began to frantically look around in the rows adjacent to theirs.

Harry tried to speak, but he felt sick to his stomach. _The ring… he saw the ring._ "Ron… I… she's…"

Ron had just looked out into the main aisle, however. He immediately lunged forward, but Harry grabbed his foot and dragged him back. "HERMIONE! _HERMIONE_! LET GO OF ME! SHE'S… THEY'VE-" He began to struggle against Harry's grasp.

"Shut up!" Harry yelled a little too loudly. He wanted nothing more than to rush out and save Hermione himself, but he knew that if he gave his position away…

Harry dove on top of Ron and flattened him to the floor as a few flashes of light erupted from the balcony up above. The pew in front of them, closest to the balcony, exploded in splinters right by their legs.

"Geroff, Harry!" Ron yelled. "I have to get to Hermione! She's hurt! HERMIONE!" He called out to her again and when he received no reply, he redoubled his efforts to get away from Harry.

"We have to deal with the Death Eaters on that balcony first or they'll cut both of us to pieces before we can reach Hermione…" Even to himself, Harry thought his voice sounded distant. He dragged Ron by the legs farther down the row and behind an undamaged portion of the pew in front of them. Ron continued to resist, so Harry had to take action. He grabbed his best friend by the collar of his robes and forced him to look him in the eye. "I _know_, Ron. I _know_. I saw it happen… I want… look. This is what we're going to do." He outlined his plan and Ron seemed to calm down somewhat. Harry had been prepared to actually hit him to knock sense into him, but was glad it didn't have to come to that.

"But you aren't coming too?" Ron asked him as he ducked under some spells.

"I can't let them get away, Ron. I can't you. You-" Harry choked on his words. "You saw what they did to her."

"I'm going to kill them if you don't," Ron said bluntly. Harry could tell he was deathly serious. "I don't care what you say. I'll do it." His breathing was ragged and Harry knew he was close to snapping again. He had to be the calm one here, even if he didn't want to be. Ron might not have known it, but Harry wanted them just as dead as he did.

"Just follow the plan," Harry pleaded as he turned to face the balcony. There were sounds of bangs on the other side of the room and a muffled yell that signified Ginny and Neville had succeeded in taking down at least one Death Eater. Harry chanced a glance and poked his head up about the pew ever so slightly to take in the situation. Neville and Ginny were trading spells with what looked to be at least three Death Eaters, though Harry believed he spotted at least two black robed figures lying on stunned or otherwise incapacitated on the ground. Hermione, Harry noticed, had somehow managed to crawl closer to his side of the pew rows. He took this as a good sign, but he didn't have any time to think otherwise. His eyes flashed upwards and saw two Death Eaters, at least, were on the balcony raining down spells at Neville and Ginny. Directly in front of him were four Death Eaters, including Rodolphus Lestrange, making their way through the rows of pews towards his and Ron's position. The closest was a masked figure two rows away that immediately raised his wand upon spotting Harry. Harry threw himself down to the ground as there was a brilliant green flash overhead. He could have sworn he felt the wind rush barely over his head as a Killing Curse barely missed him.

"Ginny!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Harry hoped that she'd understand what he needed. He didn't have time to think about it as the section of the pew directly in front of him exploded in a shower of splinters than embedded themselves in his cheeks and chin. It gave him a clear view as he blinked, shocked by the sudden pain of the wooden splinters piercing his skin, and stared directly at the Death Eater who had just fired a Killing Curse at him seconds before standing right in front of him.

Two red jets of light hit the Death Eater in the side of the head and ribs and the black robed figure crumpled to the ground immediately, banging his head on the seat of the pew on the way down. Harry breathed a large sigh of relief and felt a great admiration that both Neville and Ginny had understood exactly what he had meant. The other Death Eaters, including Rodolphus, who were working their way up towards Harry, had all ducked down instinctively. The two Death Eaters on the balcony had changed over and began to shoot at Neville and Ginny which gave Harry his opportunity.

"Now!" he hissed to Ron, who was simply sitting on the ground looking sullen and plotting murderous thoughts about the Lestranges.

"_Reducto_!" Harry yelled, aiming his wand at the floor of the balcony. His spell hit dead on where he had aimed, sending a huge crack down the balcony floor. Ron's curse hit a split second later and blew a large hole in the underside of the balcony. There was a loud creaking and groaning sound, which made Harry redouble his efforts. "_Reducto_!" he cried again, this time his voice was in sync with Ron's. The two curses hit the wooden balcony together, causing whole boards to snap and explode upwards. There was another much longer groaning sound as the wood began to break apart. As if the balcony decided to stop living at one single moment, the middle of the platform collapsed into itself due to the holes Harry and Ron had made there. Large sections of wood plummeted to the ground along with both Death Eaters who didn't even have a chance to react. There was a deafening crash that echoed throughout the entire church as the remains of the balcony slammed into the stone floor. The two Death Eaters were groggily trying to remove themselves from the dusty old wood, but they were out of the fight for the time being and even if they did return to it they'd no longer have the high ground.

"Now!" Harry snapped. Ron didn't need anymore warning. He got up and sprinted towards Hermione, literally diving the last few feet to avoid a very familiar blast of orange light from Rodolphus Lestrange.

Harry never saw the outcome as he stood up and charged down the far left aisle at the nearest Death Eater who was trying to out flank him. The Death Eater reacted instantly and snapped off a cutting hex at Harry's face. It was an obvious mistake that the Gryffindor capitalized on. Dropping to one knee, Harry let the spell pass over his head and retaliated with a simple stunning charm. The jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the chest and dropped him to the ground as elsewhere, to Harry's right, someone proclaimed that he did, in fact, see the light. There was an angry snarl from Rodolphus which told Harry that Ron had successfully returned to the Beacon with Hermione.

He gritted his teeth when his thoughts returned to Hermione. That is clearly why he wasn't running. No, he needed to take down the Lestranges. Before Harry could concentrate on the Lestranges he had a more immediate problem to take care of. Another Death Eater was charging forward at him with his wand at the ready. Given Harry's current position of being down on one knee it was impossible for him to maneuver around the Death Eater's fast movement. Knowing his opponent was just waiting for him to cast a spell so he could use a shield charm and thus get right up beside him, Harry did something he hoped the Death Eater wouldn't expect. He pointed his wand a few feet in front of the Death Eater. "Glacius," he spat, feeling that it was a decent tribute to Hermione. The floor iced up just as the charging figure cast a shield charm. However, the shield charm was useless against icy floors. As soon as the Death Eater set foot on the ice his leg shot forward, sliding on the ice, and he fell over landing painfully on his back. Harry sprang up from his crouched position. "Stupefy! Incarcerous!" he cried in rapid succession to both stun and then bind the downed Death Eater.

Harry turned to the right just in time to see either Neville or Ginny, he wasn't sure which due to Neville abandoning the invisibility cloak in favor of his white Order robes prior to entering the battle, take an olive green spell to the shoulder. The uninjured member immediately ducked down and quickly cast a healing spell, though the three Death Eaters on the far side of the church that Neville and Ginny had been battling were now moving in for the kill. Harry's side still had one more masked Death Eater and Rodolphus himself.

"It's time! We have to go! Now!" Rodolphus barked loudly as he glanced around somewhat nervously. "Rabastan! Leave them!" Turning quickly, Rodolphus headed towards the main doors of the church. The other Death Eaters, who were still able to move, followed them despite the spells Neville and Ginny were throwing at them.

The three members of the Order of the Light met in the center aisle just as the last Death Eater scrambled out of the church and into the night. "Good riddance," Ginny said, frustrated. "And what happened with Ron?"

Sighing heavily, Harry tried to keep his emotions in check. For some reason the situation didn't feel quite right. "Hermione was… injured," was all Harry could manage to say. _Why on earth did they run away instead of Apparating_?

"Well she'll be ok, right?" ask Ginny as she pulled down her robes' hood. Her hair face was dirty with sweat and her hair looked like it hadn't been washed in months.

"I hope so." He kept his responses short so that he wouldn't have to think about it at the moment. "Why… why did they run?" he asked suddenly.

Ginny shrugged. "Because they lost?"

"No… no they _ran_ instead of Apparating," Harry commented while frowning.

"So what?" Ginny shrugged again. "I guess they were too injured to-" She was cut off by a chilling wind.

The only problem was that from inside the church there was no wind. Harry immediately recognized the sensation as that of Dementors. His stomach lurched uncomfortably. "Dementors!" he said aloud as Ginny and Neville merely shivered.

Ginny clutched her ring. "Then let's get out of here before it's too late."

Before Ginny could open her mouth to speak, Harry interrupted her. "No!" When both Ginny and Neville gave him perplexed looks, he explained. "The village! We have to warn them and buy them time to get out of here or the Dementors will just…" he didn't want to think about it. Without waiting for his comrades he sprinted towards the same exit that the Death Eaters had taken moments before.

The chill in his bones intensified as soon as Harry exited the building. There were muggles of all ages who had heard the scuffle in the church and had come to investigate. They seemed be completely perplexed by the sudden cold feeling and were shuddering. Many of them wore simple pajamas or night gowns as it was still quite warm. "Get out of here!" Harry yelled as soon as he saw a crowd of about ten people standing in the middle of the street and talking in scared whispers about what was going on in the church.

Harry wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but none of the crowd moved. A man, who appeared to be in his early thirties, took a step forward. He was dressed in a plain white bathrobe. "And just _who_ are you to tell us what to do?" he asked with some degree of anger. "Where do you get off thinking you heretics can order us around after you disgraced a church?" There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the crowd, though their eyes were darting back and forth.

"Listen to me! We're all in danger! You need to get out of town!" Harry yelled as Ginny and Neville appeared at his side.

The man who had stepped forward resolve clearly faltered as the effects of the Dementors increased. He took a step backwards and the whole crowd took off down the street to the north. "No! Not that way!" he screamed after them. Down the road, perhaps three blocks ahead, Dementors were rounding the corner and heading down the street, drawn by the emotions. There were distant screams in the town and for the first time Harry saw people bursting out of their homes and fleeing towards him from around the corner where the Dementors had appeared. "But-" Harry stopped himself and looked the opposite way. _Of course_, he gulped sadly. Rodolphus and four other Death Eaters were a few blocks south in the street firing spells at something, or most likely someone. As one of the Death Eaters moved aside Harry caught a flash of white robes and knew who was wearing them immediately. _Ron… Ron came back to stop the Lestranges_. "Ron's down there! He'll be killed if we don't save him, but-"

"You go. Ginny and I will handle the Dementors… or at least keep them busy enough so that some people can escape…" Neville seemed detached and was shaking his head. The Dementor's effect was becoming increasingly stronger as more and more of them entered the city from the north.

"Alright, good luck," Harry said as he broke off at a run southbound on the main street in Ottery St. Catchpole. He hoped that the Death Eaters wouldn't turn around and spot him before he got to a decent range. Behind him he heard two cries of 'Expecto Patronum' as Neville and Ginny conjured their Patroni to fight back the Dementors. As he closed to within a single block he could pick up the conversation between Ron and the Death Eaters.

"… you'll pay for that one you miserable blood traitor!" shrieked Rabastan Lestrange as he and two other Death Eaters curses at the corner of some building. Harry assumed Ron was hiding around the corner and using it for cover.

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO HER!" Ron screamed back as he leaned out and fired a curse. "SECTUMSEMPRA!" The flash of purple sailed a few feet wide of Rabastan and the other three advancing Death Eaters. They laughed.

"Pathetic. Just what I'd expect from some blood traitor," Rabastan spat back, but Harry noticed he was clutching his arm. Perhaps Ron had hit him with a curse after all.

"Rabastan! I said leave him!" for the first time Rodolphus Lestrange's voice was wavering. "We have to meet up with… oh for… WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW OR-" he stopped in mid sentence and looking farther to the south. "Rabastan you bloody _idiot_! Look!" He jerked a hand to the south and Harry saw more Dementors entering the town.

Harry pointed his wand towards the Death Eater who he assumed was Rabastan Lestrange. "_Muffilato_," he whispered. It must have worked, because the Death Eater looked back at Rodolphus and gave a slight shrug while the latter party continued to scream and rant about the mess they were in. Harry aimed at the Death Eater closest to him, which was the one who was standing next to Rodolphus. "_Stupefy_!" he cried. The red jet of lit hit the Death Eater squarely between the shoulder blades and sent the man sprawling on the pavement face first.

The two other Death Eaters who had been firing curses and hexes at Ron spun around on the spot and fired two curses, one olive green like the one that had struck Neville's shoulder earlier and the other was a very deadly green. Harry was expecting retaliation and had already begun sprinting to the left. He went into a small alley beside what looked to be a bakery. Peeking out saw that the two Death Eaters were intently watching the Lestrange brothers.

"I SAID WE HAVE TO LEAVE, RABASTAN! WE HAVE TO CARRY OUT PART TWO!" Rodolphus screamed, grabbing his brother violently by the shoulders and shaking him.

The other Lestrange pushed his brother back angrily and tapped his ears. He then shook his head.

"Don't give me any of that bloody shit," Rodolphus roared angrily. He swung his arm and caught Rabastan in the cheek with his first which sent him staggering backwards.

Harry didn't see the resolution of the fight and didn't hear it either. The screams were becoming louder. He spun around and nearly screamed as a figure was right beside him. Drawing his wand, he stopped short of casting a spell when the figure stepped out of the shadows and was clearly wearing a white robe. "Ron, don't give me a bloody heart attack," he said angrily and resumed breathing.

"We have to stop them," Ron replied coolly. He headed over to the street again.

Leaping up to stop him, Harry grabbed Ron by the shoulder and pulled him back. "Alright that's it," he stated, trying to keep his rage under control. Ron was being far too reckless. "Stop and think about this. You want to go out into the street where on both sides there are Dementors. One side has a bunch of screaming muggles where Ginny and Neville are trying to buy them time to escape and the other has five Death Eaters that apparently are planning something else."

"Hermione," Ron said. His face was hidden by the hood of his cloak, but Harry knew there was something wrong by just the sound of his voice. "She's…" his voice crackled. This was the first time ever Harry had seen Ron cry. "She's… THEY DID IT TO HER."

"I know, Ron, I know. I want to stop them too, but first we should help-" He was cut off by screams that sounded as if they were right around the corner. He saw about ten people run by the alley entrance and down the street towards the Death Eaters. "Argh, let's go!"

Harry and Ron headed out into the main street with their wands drawn. More people ran past and Harry shudder involuntarily. The sinking feeling that he'd never be happy again threatened to overwhelm him. Instinctively he turned to the left to see what Rodolphus Lestrange and the rest of the Death Eaters were doing.

"I'll keep them back; just get the bloody fucking brooms ready!" Rodolphus snapped at his brother. It looked like Rodolphus had received a broken nose for his fight with Rabastan. "_EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" cried Rodolphus as he pointed his wand at the oncoming Dementors. It took Harry a moment to realize what form his Patronus had taken. A large snarling wolf sprinted up towards the Dementors, jumped into the air and landed right in the midst of the creatures, scattering them. The ghostly white wolf snapped it's jaws and gave a silent howl before scampering off and chasing any Dementor that got too close. Oddly enough, Harry noticed that Rodolphus was controlling the wolf's movement with small flicks of his wand and an intense concentration.

More people rushed past Harry now, one of them, a woman pulling a small girl along by the hand, bumped into him and made him look back over his shoulder. Neville's dolphin looked like it was swimming carefree through the air, jumping up into the air and plunging back into the sea whenever it came near any predator that shouldn't have been there. The dolphin was fading in and out of existence and as Harry finally fought his way through the crowd rushing the opposite way he found out why. Neville looked to be on the verge of collapsing though he pressed on. His forward was scrunched in concentration as he directed his gentle dolphin around, but the Dementors were starting to ignore it and followed the crowd of panicking people.

It wasn't what Harry saw that worried him the most, though it was true that nearly everything about the current turn of events was worrying him. He could not spot Ginny's leopard Patronus anywhere, or the girl herself. He fought his way through the last of the group of people rushing past him (he only idly thought about how they were rushing towards a second equally large group of Dementors who were quite ready to feast) and spotted Ginny lying at the far side of the street away from Neville. Three Dementors were right up close to her and bending over. "_EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" he screamed against the pounding in his head and the screams the filled the village. The familiar enormous silver stag erupted from his wand and pranced forward in the air at a brilliant speed. As one of the Dementors clutched Ginny's throat with its' slimy hand and lowered its' head, Harry's Patronus charged it down.

The Dementor lowered its cloaked head towards Ginny's mouth just as the stag bucked it from the side, pitching it up through the air. Ginny collapsed to the ground, but other Dementors began to inch forward towards the girl.

Despite the effects of the Dementors and the feeling that he was about to pass out any second while images of his life and the scream of his mother whirled around in his mind, Harry reached down and scooped up Ginny in his arms and staggered backwards. There was a flash of silver from his Patronus as the stag pranced around him like a protective shield. "Neville! Get back!" he yelled as Neville's dolphin faltered and disappeared. Harry didn't have a chance to see what had happened as he hurried back to the main crowd. There were some flashes of light from farther down the street. _Ron… I'm going to kill him, I swear_, he thought angrily as his head continued to pound. Ginny was crying in his arms. He looked back over his shoulder and nearly stopped running.

Past the Dementors he could see at least twenty people of all different ages walking around either aimlessly or sitting on the ground in a dazed look. Men, women, the elderly and children; it didn't matter to Dementors. He spied a young girl of about seven or eight years old gazing randomly at different buildings while an older woman by her side sat on the pavement in a similar daze. Harry really didn't have time to let it get to him. He already felt depressed enough to last his life due to the effect of the Dementors and the events he witnessed just a few mere minutes earlier inside the church.

There were shouts as three robed figures sprinted out of the church with Dementors hot on their heels. One of them seemingly succumbed to an invisible force and collapsed to the ground. Immediately three Dementors stopped gliding around him and bent down. Harry could have easily stunned the other two Death Eaters and left them for the Dementors, but he told himself that no one deserved to have their souls sucked out. _Still… after all those people…_

"Let's go! Rabastan, Stevens… you're with me. Remember the bloody fucking objective this time, Rabastan or I _swear_ I'll make it so you'll never get a chance with Potter's daughter. The rest of you know where to go," Rodolphus yelled over the screams of the crowd. Suddenly, seven broomsticks rose into the air and took off towards the south. There was a flash of red light that illuminated the street. The spell streaked up after the Death Eaters and caught the one farthest to the rear in the back. Almost lazily, the Death Eater slipped off the broom he was riding and fell quite a few feet to the pavement below. Dementors immediately swarmed him, though if the Death Eater was lucky he would have died from the fall. Harry didn't have time to admire Ron's spell accuracy.

"Down here!" a voice cried over the crowd. Nearly at once the crowd turned and headed down the original alley that Harry and Ron had been in earlier. Harry caught a glimpse of Neville waving his arms wildly to direct people out of the small corral the Dementors had herded people in to.

As Harry rushed forward up to Neville, the weight of Ginny sobbing in his arms was slowing him down. Ron's bear Patronus was silently roaring and swiping at Dementors where Rodolphus Lestrange's had been previously. Harry's stag continued to keep the Dementors at bay behind him as the members of the Order hurried towards the edge of town after the main crowd.

"Ginny?" Harry asked softly at the edge of town. Ron and Neville were using their Patroni to keep the Dementors firmly in the city. "Ginny! Speak to me!"

Ginny was still crying and mumbling. "It… it was horrible," she croaked softly.

"I need you to get back home. Can you do that or do I have to take you there?" asked Harry as he checked his ring. Ginny's and Luna's initials were still pulsating a dull red color and Hermione was still in pain, though the red had dulled slightly since she had returned. He still didn't understand why Luna was in any pain, but he'd worry about that later since Sarah was apparently still completely fine.

The girl nodded so Harry stepped back. "I see the Light," Ginny mumbled. She seemed to collapse into herself as she portkeyed back to the Beacon.

Harry turned back to Neville and Ron who had exited the city. The Dementors had given up chasing the crowd that had escaped, deciding that the Patroni were far too much of a nuisance when there were still people elsewhere in the city. "What… it doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?" Neville asked, his face covered with sweat. He was trembling from exhaustion. It was only now that Harry realized how tired he was, both mentally and physically. His muscles felt weak, but he knew he had to carry on.

"_Why_ are they flying broomsticks and _where_ are they going that they can't Apparate to?" he asked wearily.

"It doesn't matter," said Ron as he stared off at the flying Death Eaters in the distance. "I'm going to get my broom from the Beacon and go after them. I'm going-"

"Oh, shut up!" Harry snapped angrily. "I'm sick of this, Ron. It's nearly gotten you killed a few times and you've become entirely reckless." Ron opened his mouth to speak. "No, shut up and listen, seriously. Committing suicide by going after them alone _isn't_ going to help Hermione. Because you decided to go off after them again Ginny was nearly kissed by a Dementor, Ron. I want to get the Lestranges too, but right now we need to figure out what the bloody hell they're doing."

Ron hung his head in shame and Harry hoped that this particular conversation had finally sunk in. "My mum and dad can tell us where they're going. They're going towards-" He froze and what little of the color that was left in his face drained. "THE BURROW! THEY'RE GOING TO THE BURROW! WE HAVE TO WARN THEM!"

Harry definitely didn't disagree. "Why are they flying?"

"There's an anti-Apparation ward! We'll have to Apparate to the edge… they have a huge head start!" Ron immediately waved his wand and disappeared with a pop.

Neville hesitated and looked at Harry for a decision.

_There's something not right… I'm missing something and it's not just the fact that they're still flying on broomsticks too… what was it?_ Harry didn't have time really think it through, but he hoped it would come to him quickly. "I guess we go. We can't let him go there alone." He received a nod in return from Neville and almost simultaneously they Apparated to the edge of the Burrow's property.

By the time Harry and Neville had reached the outskirts of the Burrow's property line, Ron was already halfway up the front walk raising a ruckus. The Death Eaters either hadn't arrived yet, or they were sneaking around silently. There was a flurry of motion up ahead at the house as many lights suddenly flared into life and illuminated the windows of the Burrow. Harry finally understood. There was also a proximity ward on the house that made it so they could detect people in the general vicinity. _But… flying?_ Harry didn't have long to wait to find out why. There were a bunch of dark figures running from the Burrow hidden in the shadows. They were calling out in fright. Harry recognized the voices as belonging to the Weasleys.

Like a knife cutting through the darkness, four dark robed figures riding brooms fly directly at the running party of Weasleys who were trying to make it past the wards and into an area where they could Apparate. This was the one downside to having an Anti-Apparation ward on your property. Harry suspected that the Weasleys had taken their fire place off of the floo network for their safety. "Damnit," Harry swore under his breath. Two of the figures running from the Burrow, which Harry could see now, wore the red robes of Aurors, stopped and began firing towards the Death Eaters soaring in for an attack. Both of the Aurors missed and the Death Eaters retaliated. Harry could hear Rodolphus Lestrange screaming the words "Avada Kedavra". A brilliant flash of green followed and one of the Aurors collapsed to the ground.

Harry now understood why the Death Eaters were flying. Due to the proximity ward, the Death Eater's presence would have been noticed right away. By flying in at a high speed, they'd still activated the ward, but would be in range to harm the occupants very quickly. Harry had to admit that it was a damn good tactic.

Ron was firing spells at the Death Eaters, but missing them all as the Death Eaters zipped around on brooms in the dark. The only way Harry and the others knew where the Death Eaters were at any given time was when they themselves shot spells at the people on the ground.

"_Expecto Patronum_!" Neville cried. The Dolphin leapt into the air and hurried over to the battle.

"What?" Harry stammered. There were no Dementors here, but instantly Harry saw what Neville was doing. The silvery glow of the Patronus illuminated the skies and around area allowing them to track the Death Eaters more easily. "Excellent!" Harry exclaimed as he aimed his first shot at a low flying Death Eater that looked like he was getting ready to stop and fire a spell. "_Stupefy_!" He was sure it was going to hit his target, but the Death Eater abruptly spun around and erected a shield charm to stop his spell cold. "_Reducto_!" Harry screamed, hoping to penetrate the shield.

The Death Eater dissipated the shield and began to maneuver, but the curse caught the tail end of his broomstick and blew it off. Without a tail, he slowly spiraled down to the ground where Fleur and Bill each hit him with a stunning spell.

"But who are they?" Harry heard Mrs. Weasley shrieked as she gestured to the three white robed figures with their hoods up.

Luckily, Mr. Weasley answered so that Harry didn't have to speak. "They're on our side, Molly. Let's just get out of here… we need to warn the Lovegoods if they aren't already in danger…"

Harry's heart sank again for what seemed to be the fiftieth time that night. That's what he had forgotten. Amos Diggory's words from the Quidditch World Cup came back to him. The Lovegoods also had a home in the immediate area and that was most likely where the second group of Death Eaters were headed. He hoped that Luna would forgive him a second time for not realizing things that should have been obvious, but he overlooked entirely.

The Death Eaters, realizing they were outmatched in terms of firepower and their main advantage of darkness neutralized by Neville's quick thinking, turned and headed up higher away from the Burrow. "Back! Rabastan don't make me… just get back!" Rodolphus hollered. "We're finished here!"

As quickly as they appeared, the Death Eaters vanished into the dark of the night high above everyone else. Harry ignored the questions and glances from the Weasleys and marched up to Ron. Grabbing his friend's shoulder, Harry whispered in his ear. "It's time to leave." Ron nodded dejectedly. There was a soft pop behind Harry and he knew that Neville had already left. "We did fine, mate," Harry nodded softly, standing beside his best friend. "Your parents are fine. We need to get back to the Beacon… Hermione… and Ginny…" he choked on his words and waved his wand.

When he opened his eyes he was standing on the front walk of the Beacon. Harry sighed and wearily walked up towards the large house. He was slightly wobbling side to side as he entered the front door. Someone grabbed him by the arm as soon as he entered and began pulling him down the hall. He nearly tripped a few times and only became fully aware of what was going on when the person helping him pushed him roughly onto a bed and threw a large bar of chocolate onto his lap.

"Eat it," Susan demanded as she headed quickly to one of the potions cabinets and began pulling out phials and flasks.

Harry munched painfully on the bar of chocolate as Susan rushed around the Beacon's infirmary. He barely noticed that both Ron and Hermione were also in the room a few beds away. His concussion was back and throbbing painfully causing him to feel dizzy and disoriented. Not to mention, of course, were the injuries to the jaw and face he had received from blunt force spells cast by Roldolphus Lestrange. The splinters from the pew that exploded right in front of him didn't help either and caused him quite a bit of discomfort as he tried to eat the bar of chocolate to counter the lingering effects of the Dementors.

"Drink these," Susan said, handing him two flasks. "The green one first. That's a pain relief potion and the other is a dreamless sleep draught. You'll probably want to be asleep while I take out those splinters at the very least, and you like utterly exhausted." She offered him a warm smile.

"No," Harry replied flatly. "Hermione. And Ginny. How are they? Hogwarts… I've got to contact Hogwarts. Luna's hurt… not sure really sure how…" he slowly laid back and rested his head on the pillow. It felt really good, and before he could stop her, Susan had propped up the flask of the first potion to his lips and began pouring. He drank it anyways, still muttering about what he had to do.

Susan sighed and reached for the second flask. "You didn't let me become the Healer for the Order to not listen to me. You can't tell me that it doesn't feel good to not be hurting anymore." She glared at him and Harry knew that it was true. He also wondered how Susan had become like Madam Pomfrey so quickly.

"But…" Harry sputtered and trailed off as Susan forced him to drink from the second flask.

"Ron and Neville can go to Hogwarts and check on Sarah and Luna if you're worried," said Susan as Harry's vision began to go hazy.

Harry's vision went black as he fell into a deep, albeit peaceful sleep.

* * *

At the same time Harry was hanging upside down in the church, Luna Lovegood was just waking up. Something had triggered one of her proximity wards, well, someone other than Argus Filch. Filch gave off a very notable aura when it broke due to the fact there was nothing magical about him. The person who broke the ward this time was definitely magical.

Luna yawned as she swung her legs out of bed and landed her feet perfectly in her purple slippers. She had charmed the tip of the slippers to display a Crumple-Horned Snorkack that would take awkward steps whenever she did. She was careful not to wake Celeste while she rummaged through her trunk. Putting her collection of items such as butterbeer corks, clippings of assumed Tyropat sightings from _The Quibbler_ and, of course, her lucky Snorkack talon, on her bed, she finally found what she was looking for.

"_I solemnly swear I am up to no good_!" she said happily. The map began to draw itself into view out of nowhere. Luna quickly noticed that both Pansy Parkinson and Zacharias Smith with moving together towards the library, which she assumed would be their final location. She didn't exactly see Pansy as the studying type because that would make her too much like Hermione Granger, but she figured that Pansy and Zacharias would be up to no good. She pulled on her navy blue bathrobe and headed out of her dormitory.

She stopped at the next floor down and slowly opened the door which had a sign that read 'Second Years'. Luna fumbled around in the dark for a bit, but there was a healthy glow from the moon entering through the window that allowed her to reach the only without tripping over anything. Pulling the bed curtains away, Luna sat on the edge of the bed as the girl occupying it stirred.

Sarah yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Luna? What's wrong?" she asked instantly, snapping awake.

"I'm going to check out a Trifolump sighting," the older girl informed her. This was a simple code they had worked out before hand so that they could talk in front of others. The genius of the plan was that everyone else would simply think Luna was talking normally and Sarah had somehow bought into her insanity. The fact that Sarah was the only one in the Second Year girl's dormitory didn't stop them from being cautious. "I'll be back with proof soon." With that, Luna headed out of the dormitory and heard Sarah perform a locking charm when the door closed.

Luna silently descended to the common room and found it deserted. She was slightly disappointed since she hoped that Harry would still be around to come and investigate with her. Still, she had an important mission to do that Harry had entrusted her with. Using the Marauder's Map as a guide to avoid Filch and the few random Aurors that were patrolling the corridors, Luna made her way towards the library. The dots labeled Pansy Parkinson and Zacharias Smith were in a small study room at the back of the library. Luna had suspected this is where Madam Pomfrey kept all her books on things like Crumple Horned Snorkacks, and then very rudely kept telling her that there were no books on such creatures because they didn't exist. If Pansy was trying to research rare creatures, Luna wanted to know why.

The Ravenclaw found the library doors unlocked and mentally chided Pansy for being so foolish. She gracefully headed in between shelves and chairs in the dark room without making a sound. One had to be very quiet to get glimpses of Snorkacks and other creatures like the One-Winged Linotat, so Luna had been practicing moving stealthily from a young age.

She approached the door to find it closed, but there were sounds of people moving around behind it. Luna was quite intrigued to read the books that Madam Pomfrey swore didn't exist so before she could think otherwise she had her wand in her hand and had unlocked the door with a silent spell. The door creaked up to reveal two people entirely nude and engaged in sexual acts.

Pansy and Zacharias immediately reddened and separated, glaring at Luna with looks that could kill.

"You know," Luna began, entirely un-phased, "Crumple-Horned Snorkacks do it sort of like this, or so people have witnessed." She demonstrated with a series of hand motions that only served to further embarrass both Pansy and Zacharias.

"You little-" Zacharias began as he stumbled around half trying to cover himself and half trying to find and put on his boxers. "When I get my hands on you I swear-" his sentence was cut off as he tripped while trying to get his foot in his pant leg and fell to the floor, tangled in his clothes.

"But, of course," Luna continued dreamily, "a male Crumple-Horned Snorkack is better endowed than Zacharias. That would increase the pleasure quite a considerable bit."

"And what would _you_ of all people know about that? You don't even have any friends let alone the fact that there's no one stupid and crazy enough to be your boyfriend," Pansy sneered as she slipped back into her purple panties.

Luna merely blinked. This was about the one comment that would get a reaction of her. She obviously let this show a tiny bit because Pansy grinned wickedly and continued.

"Oh, that's right. That upsets you, doesn't it?" Pansy laughed cruelly. "Poor Loony Lovegood without any friends trying to get in our way."

"That's not true!" Luna yelled back hotly. Her hands were balled into fists at her side.

Pansy let out a shrill cackle now. "Poor poor Loony Lovegood, you have no friends."

"Harry is my friend! And the rest of them that stand up to you!" the Ravenclaw snapped back. It was highly unusual for her to show any emotion like this.

Noting the fact that she was nearly through Luna's guard, Pansy pressed her attack. "Potter? You think you're Potter's _friend_? Don't make me laugh. I thought you Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart." The Slytherin girl wore a large grin on her face. "Those Gryffindors don't give a damn about you and your Crunkle-Rimmed whatevers. Potter's using you to baby-sit his daughter."

Luna was shaking now, her face red with anger. She was nearly at the breaking point, but before she could retort Pansy struck again.

"You don't believe me? Well, where are they then? Do any of them actually _like_ you? Granger doesn't and neither does Weasley. They're Potter's two best friends. You know, Potter has some pretty Slytherin characteristics. I'm ashamed to admit it, but it's true. He breaks rules all the time and I wouldn't put it past him to pretend to like you just so he could have you watch his daughter. Kind of pathetic if you ask me. Let's see, Longbottom? He'll do whatever Potter tells him to do. The Weaselette? You've seen how malicious she is. It was probably all her idea. The only thing you got going for you is a decent relationship with a twelve year old girl that's using you for protection." Pansy cackled again, a look of intense glee on her face.

"No," Luna said, her lip trembling. There were already tears forming in her eyes. "No you're wrong!"

"Am I? Come on, Loony. You know what I'm saying is true or you wouldn't be getting worked up over it," grinned Pansy, her pug nose flaring up with excitement.

Luna wasn't even listening to Pansy's words anymore. They had cut her more deeply than the Slytherin knew.

_She was five with long blonde hair and silver eyes. It was her first day of school at the nearby village of Ottery St. Catchpole and she was quite excited. She walked hand in hand with her mother talking about all the interesting things she would learn as well as getting constant reminders not to talk about magic or anything of the sort._

_The first day of school was going well at first, but went sour very quickly. One of the other girls with brown eyes, freckles and red hair that bobbed and curled cutely as she walked finally approached her near lunch. Everyone liked this girl including the teachers and other parents. Luna was happy when the girl approached her. She had befriended everyone else instantly and Luna was started to feel a little left out._

_"Hi," the redhead said brightly. "It's my first day too!"_

_Luna simply stared at her for a few moments as she was hard on hearing. "Yes!" she answered a little too excited. "I can't wait to learn about the Crumple-Horned Snorkack!" She nearly bit her tongue. Mummy had definitely not told her not to talk about magical creatures._

_"What?" the redhead girl frowned. Luna simply looked at her, frozen in fear that she had just let out a huge secret. "You're weird!" the girl pronounced. From that moment on no one would talk to her without whispering and giggling directly afterwards._

"Where are you going?" Pansy snapped.

Luna had turned on her heel and was heading out of the small study room with a single tear rolling down her cheek. She didn't reply at all.

"Yeah, you run! Don't come back until you have any friends!" Pansy's voice rang through the deserted library. "Better be quick about it though, you'll be out of here reaaaal soon."

"Shut it you…" Zacharias' voice faded away as Luna turned down the corridor, letting library doors bang closed behind her. Without looking at the Marauder's Map, she made her way back to Ravenclaw Tower in tears.

The common room was still deserted as she expected, but Luna headed straight for the staircase to the girl's dormitories. Barely slowing down to knock three times in quick succession on the second year's door, she continued upwards to her floor. There was a creak from down in the stairwell as Sarah opened the door and whispered her name, but Luna ignored it as well.

She took off her slippers and bathrobe and crawled into her bed. She drew the curtains and around her bed and for the first time since the weeks following her mother's death, Luna Lovegood cried herself to sleep, knowing what Pansy had said was true.

* * *

Severus Snape detested being up at this hour, but the Dark Lord wanted all the members of his Inner Circle present for when the grand and mighty Rodolphus Lestrange made his report of what happened in Ottery St. Catchpole. Simply because Rodolphus wasn't parading around gloating that he had Potter, he assumed that the idiot had messed up somewhere along the way.

"My Lord," Rodolphus said elegantly, falling to one knee and looking at the ground as Voldemort himself entered the small room.

"Rodolphus you do realize that I, the Dark Lord, know whenever you act like that you've failed me?" Voldemort looked somewhat amused. Snape had to stop himself from grinning.

"Of course, I am sorry my Lord," replied Rodolphus, who was sweating now.

Voldemort glared down his kneeling servant. "Perhaps you'd best explain why you failed before I become angry." Everyone in the room knew that the Dark Lord was already fuming.

"My Lord, the plan, it went as planned. We found Potter's aunt and uncle and used them as hostages in an attempt to draw Potter into giving himself up. Potter showed up almost instantly as planned, but he had friends with him-"

"And you didn't expect this after the Department of Mysteries over a year ago?" Voldemort interrupted, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"We did, my Lord, we did! Rabastan and some of the others quickly captured that Granger girl and tortured her in front of Potter, who I had beaten quite severely," replied Lestrange with a sickening smile spreading upon his face. "She may have had her mind snapped under our combined Cruciatus Curse." Snape could almost swear that Rodolphus Lestrange was salivating as he remembered the incident.

It was such a waste, Snape thought. While he certainly didn't like Hermione Granger and, in fact, hated her in many respects, he did have to admit to himself that she had a very brilliant mind. _Such a waste_.

"But?" prompted the Dark Lord.

"The rest of Potter's miserable little band broke in and fighting ensued. We battled until the Dementors were scheduled to arrive. We then headed off to the secondary objectives like planned."

"And then?" Voldemort was growing tired of having to prompt answers out of his servant. The next prompt would be a Cruciatus.

"The Weasley residence was more heavily guarded than we originally suspected. Potter's group showed up, minus the Weasley girl I believe was kissed while fighting the Dementors, and we were clearly out numbered due to our splitting up. We managed to kill an Auror while one of our foreign recruits was captured. We retreated to prevent further losses, but the second half of phase two was completed perfectly."

"But you _failed_, Rodolphus. You failed to bring me Potter."

Rodolphus cringed. "Yes… yes, my Lord."

For a moment Snape was sure that Voldemort would end Rodolphus Lestrange's life just as he had Lucius Malfoy's not too long ago, but the Dark Lord surprised them all.

"While that is regrettable," Voldemort said, offhand. "I would still call this a victory."

Snape could only blink. Bellatrix Lestrange, standing beside him, began to fidget oddly. Looking about the room it was clear that the other Death Eater representatives in the Inner Circle, it was clearing that no one expected this.

"I see you are all shocked, but that is understandable. I shall tell you all why this was not a failure," he paused and his eyes passed over every person in the room. No one was stupid enough to look away or flinch. "The main objective did fail, yes, because Potter is clearly not in our clutches, but he has since, according to Rodolphus' reports, lost two of his six to companions. Potter's little Order seems to be the only ones standing in our way. The Ministry is ineffective! The Aurors are useless, and most importantly, Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix has fallen apart and become a pawn of the Ministry!" the Dark Lord looked around the room again. "We can simply concentrate on our larger scale objectives and overwhelm Potter and his friends. Yes, it is true that I can no longer access his direct thoughts, but I can read his emotions. He is overwhelmed by grief and worry right now. In fact, we shall redouble our efforts to hurt him and his friends specifically." He turned to Snape. "Proceed with the Hogwarts plan."

Snape nodded respectively. "As you command, my Lord."

The Dark Lord turned to Walden Macnair. "Have you succeeded in your mission yet, Walden?"

The Death Eater bowed. "Nearly, my Lord. Within a month it should all be completed."

"Good." Voldemort turned his attentions back to Rodolphus. "Rodolphus you've done well despite failing your main objective. I'll have to think of a suitable reward." He paused for a moment, "Ah, yes…" With a quick motion the Dark Lord drew his wand, causing Rodolphus to cringe. Everyone in the Dark Lord's Inner Circle knew what most rewards were comprised of.

"_Crucio_!" cried Voldemort. A high pitched scream erupted as Bellatrix Lestrange withered on the floor. "I understand there was a lovers' quarrel not too long ago." He broke the connection. "Perhaps you'd best try harder, Bella." Voldemort turned and exited without another word.

Snape sneered happily to Bellatrix before leaving, his cloak billowing behind him as he turned headed back to his room. He contacted Pansy Parkinson and then returned to bed, still grumbling about being woken up in the middle of the night to listen to that.

To be continued.


	13. Lonely, but not Loony

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 13 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Jane wrote the summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching, whatever that may be.

**A/N** - I'll start replying to questions posed in reviews (within reason) by reviewing each new chapter after it is posted, Abraxan-style (starting once I post Chapter 14). This should be an easy way to answer some misunderstandings or simple questions.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 13**

**The Lists of Harry Potter**

_"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…" - Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"_

Harry Potter groaned as he woke up. He was still in bed, and it felt very good to be lying against a soft pillow on a comfortable mattress. His body felt drained and he dreaded having to wake up and move his muscles. He didn't have a choice, however, as the memories of before his sleeping draught came rushing back to him. His eyes shot open and he immediately stretched an arm to the side and fumbled around the night stand for his glasses. When he finally put the glasses on he was staring straight up into a floating piece of parchment.

_Harry, do not get up until I tell you to do so._

He recognized the handwriting as Susan's. He glowered at the note a moment before his thoughts went back to Hermione. He looked to the left and right and saw that no one else inhabited the beds in their small infirmary. _Forget that note_, he growled and sat up. Sliding his legs out of bed, Harry prepared to stand up when a wailing alarm went off that forced him to clamp his hands over his ears. The alarm continued until he lay back down on his bed.

"Couldn't you read my note?" sighed Susan a few moments later, having come into the room.

"Even Madam Pomfrey wasn't that cruel," grumbled Harry bitterly. He looked up at the Hufflepuff. She looked as if she hadn't slept in days. Her eyes had dark circles under them and were blood shot. She looked as if she had been crying most of the night and had been otherwise stressed. Her hair looked as if it hadn't been washed in days. Harry quickly realized that she had been up all night dealing with their injuries.

Susan sat down on the edge of his bed and yawned. "I'm not Madam Pomfrey." She looked directly into his eyes. "I'm worse." Harry didn't dare disbelieve her.

A million questions ran through his head at once. "Hermione! What happened to here? Ginny is she ok too? Ron and Neville? Where are they? Did Luna's father get out of his house in time? Is there any news-" he blurted out all at once.

"Hermione is… well…" Susan hesitated just enough, as well as failed to meet his gaze, to make Harry's heart fall and tears begin to form in his eyes. "She's not gone. Not like Neville's parents were." Her words were slow and careful. "She looked to be gone until I gave her some pain relief potion. I guess there are after effects of Cruciatus that… well… I guess I don't know of." She choked on the words just a bit. "I'm sorry."

Harry blinked. "For what? You're doing a great job being a healer without any formal training… unless. Hermione's… no, she is ok, right?"

"Hermione will recover, I think. Even speaking hurts her at the moment, but she's making great progress. I… I'm not really sure if she'll ever really _feel_ again… I tried using one of those nervous system scanning spells… and it came back so bad I'm surprised she isn't… isn't like Neville's parents were," Susan simply explained, looking even more tired than she did when she entered the room. "I'm sorry, Harry." The words seemed to come out from nowhere as if the only way she'd managed to say them in the first place was by forcing them out.

"Sorry? For what? There's nothing more you can do, I'm sure-"

He saw Susan shake her head. "Not about that, but for being a coward."

Harry couldn't comprehend what was making her say this so he ended up staring at her for three long seconds before even trying to reply. "How exactly are you being a coward?"

"Because I'm here in the Beacon all safe and sound while the rest of you are out there and getting injuries like Hermione's-"

"Susan, you aren't a coward. You're doing your job. I'm not exactly sure where I remember this from, but 'If you're a healer, your job is to keep yourself injury free'. If you get injured, who is going to take care of us?" Harry interrupted her.

Susan nodded solemnly. "It's just after Auntie Amelia died, I became a coward. That's why I didn't answer the DA call at the end of last year. I was afraid I was going to end up like her. I looked up to her quite a bit. She was powerful and everything I wanted to be when I graduated, but that didn't even keep her alive. I felt the galleon heat up, but I ignored it because I was too scared. Then… then you came past the Hufflepuff common room chasing Snape, Malfoy and the Carrows. I could have helped you and stopped them, but I was too scared to do it once again."

Harry thought for a few moments before replying. Susan was starting to cry, and he mentally cursed whatever god kept having him deal with crying girls continually. He knew he shouldn't really care about that, seeing as he was trying to keep himself from crying over last night's events himself. "Susan, not everyone is a Gryffindor. I know it may seem like the only way to fit in here is to go blazing off into the fights, but we need more than just fighters. If you were a coward, Susan, you wouldn't have joined us. It's that simple. You're a true Hufflepuff, though. You're loyal and caring. It's the perfect combination for a dedicated healer, I guess." He offered her a smile.

"You're right, I suppose," replied Susan as she wiped her eyes and handed Harry another small phial of potion. "This is supposed to help alleviate concussions. Once you take this I guess you can get up, but if you feel dizzy go sit down. If I catch you trying to do things and I find out you're feeling dizzy you'll _wish_ I was Madam Pomfrey."

Shuddering slightly and believing her entirely, Harry swallowed the bitter tasting potion in one gulp. His head cleared immediately and he was able to slide out of bed without setting off anymore alarms. Immediately the cool air blowing through the open window in the room made him shudder. Looking down, Harry noticed he was only wearing boxers. "Err," he began, blushing. "Do you mind?" he asked as Susan was still sitting on the edge of the bed.

The Healer rolled her eyes. "Who do you think undressed you to your boxers last night? You had a lot more splinters embedded in your body than just on your face. I'd like to think I can be mature and professional about this, if nothing else."

"I'm sorry, it's just that… well," Harry muttered as he found some clothes had already been laid out for him. He slid himself into a pair of jeans and t-shirt.

"Yeah, I know, I know. Ron gave me a 'what on earth are you doing!' look when I started last night too. Still, it was probably about my most enjoyable task last night." Harry noticed Susan had flushed red.

When he was fully dressed, Harry immediately headed for the stairs. "Hermione is in her room, then? I need to go see her." He tried to keep his voice even and act like he was in control of his emotions. His friends were expecting him to be calm and in control of himself and not to show fear. Every leader in history had to be like this. Showing weakness did nothing but spread feelings of doubt and insecurity. However, Harry knew he was failing at doing this.

Susan nodded. "And Ginny is in hers too. She's had a bunch of chocolate, but she keeps, well, crying," the Hufflepuff explained gloomily. "She won't talk to anyone about what's bothering her. I can't tell if she's just traumatized about how close she came to being kissed or what, but I'm only able to go by what Neville told me briefly last night. Ron is off visiting his parents and right now Neville is as Ottery St. Catchpole with the Weasley twins trying to see if they can find out anything useful." She sighed wearily.

"I'll watch over Hermione and Ginny. Go have a shower and get some rest," Harry sighed as he looked over Susan's tired form again. "I'll wake you up if there's anything serious happening."

"Let's go by my definition of serious and not yours, ok?" Susan said with a tired and relieved look on her face. She headed past him and up the stairs.

"Yes Madam Pomfrey," Harry called after her. He made his way to Hermione's room and slowly opened the door. "Hermione?" he asked quietly in case she was asleep. There was some slight movement on the bed so Harry went over and sat down in a chair that Ron had set up the night before.

Hermione painfully rolled her head to the side so that she could look at Harry. There was some mumbling that came out as disgusting sounding rasps. Her eyes watered so she raised her hand shakily and pointed her wand to the wall. On a black board, much like the one Snape used in his dungeon, words appeared out of nowhere.

_It's not your fault._

Harry stared at her, his own eyes watering. "Oh, Hermione, of course it's my fault. I did it again! The whole saving people thing you mentioned! I fell for the same bloody thing again."

Hermione flicked her wand again.

_But the Dursleys were actually captured. You couldn't have traded yourself for them._

"Yes, I could have. Then you wouldn't be like this. You shouldn't have to be like this just because of my mistakes," he stated as tears began to roll down his cheeks. He had told himself he'd remain in control of his emotions, but seeing her like this was too much.

_I chose to go just like Sirius chose to go to the Department of Mysteries. Harry, I knew the risks involved when I continually hung around with you all those years and helped you stop Voldemort._

"You can't tell me you wanted to end up like this!" Harry was sobbing slightly now.

_End up like what? You saved my mind, Harry. As you can see I'm clearly not like the Longbottoms. The pain has already gone down since last night. Susan says it should keep going down and I'll be able to move and speak normally, but with some reduced feeling._

Harry nodded mutely as he tried to collect himself. A thought from last night popped into his head and he just had to ask. "Hermione, why didn't you use the ring to escape? You could have gotten to safety."

_Well, I couldn't when the one Death Eater was holding me or I'd risk bringing him back here. I had to stay there to buy time for Neville. I knew he was going to find Ron and Ginny once we realized there were Death Eaters around the perimeter waiting for us. If I had left, they would have just taken you to Voldemort. I made my choice to wait._

"Don't," he choked. "Don't make those choices for me. You have no idea what that does to me. I don't want anyone sacrificing anything for me."

_You're worth more than you think. If the Prophecy is true then yes, we do need to sacrifice things to save you._

"Dumbledore said that-"

Hermione's eyes staring intently into his own cut him off as new words appeared on her blackboard.

_And if it isn't I still know full well that you are the only person capable of taking down Voldemort. You've faced him more times than anyone else alive and lived through all of them._

Harry shook his head slowly. "I need everyone with me, Hermione. I'm only good when I have you, Ron and the others backing me up. Without you and Ron I'd never have stopped Quirrell from getting the Philosopher's Stone in our first year."

_But you are the one that faced him alone. Ron and I only helped get you there. For this war, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, I and the rest of the Order will only get you to Voldemort. When the time comes you'll face him alone because you're the only one that has a chance._

The board wiped itself clean and continued.

_We'll be there until the end, though, no matter what the cost. We'll keep everyone off your back and make sure Voldemort doesn't try to make it more than a one on one. You're special, Harry Potter. You're the one that has to fight and beat Voldemort and that's why we're going to sacrifice ourselves for you._

Wiping away the tears forming in his eyes once again, Harry nodded. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I'm sorry. I'll get the Lestranges for you. I'll make them regret it."

_Harry, please don't do anything stupid. You know what I mean by that. Make sure Ron doesn't, either. Last night he was ranting about wanting to go find them right now._

"I will," he said softly. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I've got a lot of things to think about right now and…" he trailed off as he stood up.

_That's fine. I wish I could help talk to you about them, but I figured you'd just say 'I'm fine' and leave it at that. You really need to find someone to open up too, Harry._

"I know," Harry stated simply before turning and heading out of the room. There was only one person, well perhaps two, but he wasn't about to dump everything on Sarah, that he'd consider sharing his feelings with and she wasn't at the Beacon currently.

The second floor bathroom door opened up and Susan excited wearing a bathroom. She yawned and headed down to her room. "Thanks, Harry. I could really use some sleep." Susan removed the towel from her head, waved her wand and caused her hair to instantly dry. She entered the room that Neville slept in, but Harry didn't really think anything of it. Come to think of it, Harry realized that Susan normally shared a room with Hermione. Since that was somewhat out of the question now that Harry was visiting with her, she had to find other lodgings.

Harry headed up to the third floor. The door to Ginny's room was closed, but he could hear sounds coming front under the door. He reached the door a rapped on it with his knuckles and instantly regretted it. Apparently he was still sore from last night, though that was to be expected. From underneath the door Harry could hear the feint tunes of Celestina Warbeck singing. Ginny apparently inherited her mother's tastes in music. "Ginny?" he called through the door. "It's Harry."

"Harry?" Ginny's crackling reply came. There was no mistaking the shakiness of her voice. She was clearly crying.

Slowly opening the door, Harry slipped into the room and closed it behind him. Ginny was sitting on her bed with her legs curled up against her chest. Her arms were wrapped around her knees protectively. Scattered all around the bed and surrounding floor were used tissues. Ginny looked just as tired and rattled as Susan had. He rushed over to the bed and cleared away some of the tissues so he could have a place to sit down next to her.

"Harry… it was horrible," she sniffed and threw her arms around him.

Pulling her protectively into an embrace, Harry ran his hand up and down her back soothingly. "You're safe now, no matter what you're worried about. I've had many close calls like that…"

"Not that," Ginny said immediately. She blew he nose on a new tissue. "I knew I could have moments like that… it was… the memories. I never… I've never been too close to one before. Not even on the train in my second year. It's… the memories." She simply sobbed in his arms.

"But you did well," Harry reminded her soothingly. "I know what they feel like and I know what its like to nearly be kissed. I guess you just have to realize that memories can't hurt you."

He felt Ginny shake her head against his chest. "But I would have lost my soul if you hadn't saved me."

"And I would have been dead at Voldemort's hands, or even earlier, if you hadn't saved me just a few minutes before from the Lestranges and the other Death Eaters," he reminded her.

"You… you don't know what I saw." She pulled back and looked up at him.

Unable able to turn away from the teary brown eyes, Harry sighed. "Why don't you tell me about it? It might help."

"I… I can't…" Ginny stammered, turning away.

"Well, alright. I'm not open about that sort of thing either," Harry said thoughtfully as he gazed up at the ceiling and recalled many things that he was still keeping hidden because he was afraid of what other people would say.

"I want you to know, I really do!" she exclaimed as she wiped her tears away with yet another tissue.

Harry shrugged. "Well, I'd like to hear it. I think you're overreacting, though."

Ginny opened her mouth and closed it. "No, you'll hate me if I tell you."

"Alright, then don't," Harry replied firmly. He wasn't about to try and force it out of her.

"It's just… no, you'd hate me."

Harry began to get slightly annoyed. "Ginny if you don't want to tell me that's fine, but…"

"Otherwise shut up?" Ginny finished for him, angrily.

Harry shook his head, stunned at her sudden outburst. "No! I was going to suggest you take your mind off it and we could go for a walk down to the village or something."

"Like hell you were," she snapped.

He held up his hands defensively, which he thought he was doing far too often when talking to Ginny. "I was too! I know exactly how you feel. I kept the contents of the prophecy hidden for months, didn't I? I was scared of what everyone else might think and do."

"The prophecy wasn't about you and a friend, ok? This is!"

"Fine! You know what? I don't care. I don't need this right now," Harry snapped back as he got up from the bed and marched out of the room in a rage, making sure the door slammed loudly behind him. Without looking he nearly ran headlong into Neville. "Oh, sorry, Neville," he said glumly. His anger had quickly dissipated and left him depressed.

Harry could tell that Neville wanted to comment about what he most likely just overheard, but to his credit he kept it to himself. "Harry, Fred and George are outside demanding to finally be allowed to see 'King Potter's Castle'."

Shaking his head is disbelief; Harry followed Neville out front where the Weasley twins were waiting by the road. Despite the fact that Harry and Neville must have seemingly stepped out of thin air in the twin's perspective, they both fell to one knee while bowing their heads and sweeping an arm elegantly.

"Long live-"

"-King Potter!"

"We humbly request that we be allowed to entire your castle, my liege," the twins chimed in together.

Harry sighed and glared at them. "I'm not in the mood, guys. The only type of royalty I feel like right now is a royal arse. The Beacon is right in front of you."

Both of the twins recoiled at once. "Sorry Harry, we're just trying to lighten the mood," Fred said, though it might have been George. Harry was too tired and didn't really care enough to tell them apart right now.

"You've got mail, though," the other twin said as he pointed to the veranda roof.

Sure enough, when Harry turned around, there was a large barn owl perched and looking down on them. "Well come on then," Harry said with an exasperated sigh. The owl waited another minute as Harry continued to call to it before it spread its wings and landed on his shoulder. He grabbed the letter tied to its leg and opened it up.

_I hope Archimedes brings this straight to you instead of just slacking off somewhere. Anyways, we have no quick way of contacting you, but I need to speak to you about a certain situation I'd rather not put in writing. Just drop by Grimmauld Place whenever you get this letter._

_NT_

_I wonder what she wants_, Harry sighed to himself and shooed the owl off of his shoulder. "I have to go meet Tonks at Grimmauld Place. Wake up Susan if Hermione needs her," he instructed Neville. He began heading down towards the road and out of the Apparation Ward. "Oh," he began as he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "If you two destroy or trap anything in there, I'll kill you both." The twins looked aghast.

Harry pulled out his wand and with a quick and well practiced motion Apparated himself to the drawing room in Grimmauld Place. The giant tapestry loomed over him for a moment before he shook his head to clear it from thoughts of Sirius. His traitorous eyes scanned down the family tree until it reached the scorch mark that Sirius had indicated belonged to him. It wasn't the scorch mark that got his attention, though. It was the name beside it. _Regulus Black_. Something in his mind kept him staring at the name while his mind roamed elsewhere.

_Regulus Black was a Death Eater. Sirius said he got murdered for getting in too deep, but what if… the Locket… no… it couldn't be. Could it? Regulus' middle name…_ Harry quickly turned and ran to the hallway. "Tonks!" he yelled. "Tonks! Where are you?"

"In here, just a minute Harry, blimey," Tonks' muffled reply came from down the hall.

Not wanting to wait, Harry ran down the hall, intently focused on Regulus Black. For months he hadn't been able to find anything to match up with R.A.B. or any of the other Horcrux, but now this seemed like such a likely option. Tonks' voice had come from the master bedroom. He pressed on the door and pushed it open. "What was Regu-" he stopped dead and his eyes opened wide.

Tonks was wearing a pair of simple jeans, but was merely holding a purple Weird Sisters shirt in hand. She shrieked and quickly folded her arms over her chest and turned her back towards Harry. "Geez, Harry," she said, breathing hard. "If you wanted to see them that badly you could have just asked."

Harry stood dumbfounded. It took a few long seconds for him to mumble an apology and turned his back.

"Well, did you like them at least?" Tonks called from the bedroom.

Harry didn't reply to that, but waited until Tonks had come out of the bedroom. He turned around. "Regulu-" he stopped and his eyes looked down down and then back up to Tonk's face. They dropped back down again. "Damnit, Tonks. Put a shirt on!"

Tonks grinned, entirely unashamed. "But you liked them so much the first time-"

"JUST DO IT!" Harry snapped. "I need to concentrate. I mean on something other than… look it's about Voldemort!"

"Fine," the Metamorphmagus pouted as she returned to the bedroom. Thirty seconds later a finally fully clothed Tonks returned to the hallway. "Now what's this about Voldemort."

"His Horcruxes. The Locket, specifically. I think I have a l ead," Harry explained, exasperated.

"Hor-_what_? What Locket?" Tonks put her hands on her hips. "You conveniently never told me anything before. Are you just keeping me around for my body, or are you planning on telling me?"

Harry blushed as he thought about a topless Tonks. "Ok, let me explain…" As the two of them headed down to the kitchen for some food as Harry found that he was famished, Harry explained about Voldemort's Horcruxes and how he and Dumbledore had destroyed the first two, but the remaining four were still out there. He finished with the fake Locket in the cave and the cryptic note from R.A.B.

"So we have no idea where this Locket could be now?" asked Tonks, no longer joking around.

Harry took a large bite of the sandwich he had prepared in under a minute for himself and chewed thoughtfully. Once he swallowed, he continued. "We checked for any famous names, but the thing is the style of the note suggests that R.A.B., whoever he or she is, seemed to know Voldemort personally."

"And you think this person was _Regulus_?" Tonks asked him as she arched one of her eyebrows and gave him a skeptical look. "Sirius always said that he-"

"Got in too deep and tried to back out, I know, but how would Sirius know? What if Regulus somehow found out about Voldemort's Horcruxes and then took the Locket? He could have been killed because Voldemort realized he was sneaking around and wasn't being entirely faithful." Harry took another bite and swallowed. "I need to know what Regulus' middle name was, though."

Tonks winced. "I'm not sure, honestly. I didn't have too much connection with my supposed family. My mum didn't really get on with the Blacks and was blasted off the tapestry as well. I didn't know anything about Regulus other than the fact he existed. I only met Sirius a few times before two years ago when he decided to stop in and visit mum."

"Wouldn't your mum know? She grew up with Sirius and Regulus." Harry asked. He was sure it was Regulus, but he needed to be sure.

The woman's expression fell into a depressed gaze. Tonks sighed. "Harry, my parents are dead."

"What? Merlin I'm sorry. I had no idea…" Harry apologized sincerely, but the truth is he should have realized it by now. The last Christmas at the Burrow, Tonks clearly acted as if she had no where to go.

"It's ok, Harry. There's no reason you should have known. I doubt even mum's sisters knew, though I doubt they care. They died in a car crash when I guess you were eleven or twelve. Mum pretty much abandoned her magical side once she had to choose between my dad and the rest of her family. Given who her sisters were, it was no surprise. My dad was pretty simple. He was actually a news anchor for a pretty big TV network," explained Tonks solemnly. "I was in seventh year at the time, and I've got to tell you, even though you were only eleven, a lot of the older girls still wanted to get with you, especially after you took on Professor Quirrell."

Harry blushed slightly. "We need someone who knows…"

Tonks frowned. "And what, do you just want me to walk straight up to Bellatrix and Narcissa and ask them?"

"Alright, I get your point," sighed Harry. "So who, exactly, was interested in my when I was eleven?" He wasn't sure what possessed him to ask that. Perhaps Tonks was rubbing off on him.

"Aha!" she exclaimed. "You are interested in knowing! Ginny probably wouldn't like that, but Rachel was making some comments about your eyes in particular."

"Ross?" he asked, rather surprised.

"Yes, that's her. Oh! Speaking of Rachel… that's why I needed you to come over here."

"Why, does she want look at me some more?" Harry asked with a strange feeling that he had been spending just a little too much time with Tonks. Still, it was cheering him up.

"Probably, but she's getting released from St. Mungo's finally. She's uh… found out that I'm involved in some other, more important things that Auror work and is wondering if she can help us. No, don't worry, she's completely trust worthy. I haven't told anything specific anyways. The real reason I need to ask you is because you need to give permission for anyone to enter this house." Tonks shrugged. "She could be a great help and she obviously thinks the Ministry and Aurors are lacking."

Harry nodded. "Yes, that would be a good idea. Tell her next time you see-"

"I'll be right back!" Tonks said happily before she vanished with a soft pop. Harry was left stunned. He sighed and continued eating his sandwich. It took only three minutes for Tonks to arrive back in the kitchen with a second person.

"Nice place," Ross commented with a grin. Harry didn't fail to notice that she was looking specifically at him the entire time instead of actually gazing around the house.

"Err, thanks," Harry said quietly. He bit back a retort about how it was Sirius' house.

Rachel Ross didn't look quite the same way Harry had seen her the first time. In fact, she looked like a merger of her usual young beauty and Rodolphus Lestrange, as scary as it was. The left side of her face had a jagged scar that would probably never fade entirely.

"Yup, we have some things in common," Ross said off hand after catching Harry staring at her cheek.

"Sorry, I forgot about how annoying it is to have people looking at certain scars…" he sighed.

"Or people's boobs? It's ok though, Harry, you can look at mine anytime you want," Tonks said helpfully.

Ross' head shot up and she looked at Tonks in surprise. "What's this? What have you been keeping from me, _Nymphadora_?"

Tonks smiled innocently. "Nothing much, just had Harry here trying to catch me naked."

Harry was completely red with embarrassment now. "I never tried to catch you, it was a mistake…" His comments, however, went entirely unnoticed by both young women.

"You told me he was going out with that Weasley girl! And you're going out with Lupin, unless you decided to change your mind! You told me it was serious!" Ross exclaimed as Harry felt like he was back in Gryffindor tower listening to Parvati and Lavender.

"Harry and Ginny are still together, but I don't know, he seemed pretty eager to catch me naked. He barged straight into my room!"

"So things _aren't_ getting along with Lupin? He sounded really sweet!"

"They're getting on just fine, thank you very much."

"Why you miserable wench," Ross said with a goofy grin. "Little Nymphie is growing up!"

"Don't call me 'Nymphie'! And growing up you say? If I remember correctly it was poor little Rachie that never had boyfriends at Hogwarts-"

"Don't call me 'Rachie'!" Ross stuck out her tongue maturely. "It's not my fault I can't change to whatever a guy likes." Her voice became higher pitched as she did a horrible impression of Tonks. "Oh there's Roger, my hair can be long and blonde. Oh there's Gavin, I guess I better increase the size of the twins. I mean really now."

"Awww, someone's jealous," chided Tonks. "We should ask Harry, though."

"Oh, good idea," Ross agreed immediately. Both of the women spun to face Harry directly.

"Um, uh… what?" Harry asked weakly. He had barely been able to keep up with the tiring pace of the conversation and wondered how exactly both Tonks and Ross managed to spend so much energy while never getting tired.

"Ross. Do you think she's good looking?" Tonks asked bluntly.

Harry fixed his gaze on Ross. When he had met her first at Azkaban, she was rather beautiful. Her once short black hair was longer now. Instead of brushing it back behind her ear, she left one lock of hair dangling over her cheek to help mask her scar. The scar, however, did little to destroy her beauty. Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, though. "Uh, she looks nice."

"Awww, someone actually finds Rachie attractive! I hear you might have a chance though. Judging by how he still reacts I'd say they haven't gotten too serious yet-"

"You little tramp! Is that all you think about?"

"Now now, Rachie, don't make toss you out on your rump regardless of how much Harry likes it."

"You think so?" Ross began to strut around the kitchen with a small sway in her hips. She looked back over her shoulder. "Nymphie, did his eyes follow."

"Harry!" Tonks admonished. "Ginny! What about Ginny?"

Harry blinked and tore his eyes away from the black haired witch. "Ginny. Well, we're fine, I suppose." He looked back up at Tonks and sighed. She had changed her hair to match Ross'.

"Do I look better like this?" she asked and gave him kissy-lips.

"Hey! No cheating!" Ross called from across the room.

Harry began to laugh and, after all he had just been through, it felt great.

* * *

Luna Lovegood certainly wasn't laughing. It was around eight o'clock in the evening and she was trying to finish her Charms essay. It was only Saturday, but Luna had nothing better to do. The hard thing about the essay wasn't the assignment itself, but the fact that she hadn't gotten more than two hours of sleep the previous night. Add in the fact that she had been incredibly depressed for over the last twelve hours and it wasn't surprising that she was struggling with it.

Sarah sat to Luna's side on the small two seat couch. Though Luna had been trying to keep the same attitude about the girl, because she certainly wasn't Harry or any of her other supposed friends, it was hard since it was very likely that Sarah was only using her as well.

"What happened?" Sarah asked her finally. She had been asking since last night. "You can't just keep ignoring me!" Luna was confident that Sarah was quite wrong.

Sarah fumed silently, but continued to work on her Potions essay. "Look," she said slowly, "whatever happened, just talk to Harry. He can fix it."

It was the wrong thing to say. Luna sniffed twice, trying to control her emotions before she stood up. "I don't need his help!" she said loudly, drawing more looks from the other occupants in the room. She saw this year's head boy, Terry Boot, simply shrug to Justin Finch-Fletchley. They both turned back to their Transfiguration homework.

"But-"

Luna was already heading out of Ravenclaw tower. She was home free as soon as she exited the building. Sarah had stayed in the tower for nearly all her free time. Luckily for Luna, the young girl had taken it upon herself to do this to ensure her own safety. Luna didn't exactly travel far. Just down the hall she headed into an unused classroom with a large bay window. She sat down on the large windowsill and gazed up at the moon.

Somehow this always calmed her down. Luna had done this many times before as a child with her mother who, in addition to being an expert at devising her own Charms, was an avid astronomer. They had taken many strolls through a forest right beside their house to the perfect stargazing location. Luna gave the moon a sad smile as a few more tears rolled down her cheek.

Luna had no idea what she was going to do now. Only a few months ago she had, what she assumed, were good friends and a clear purpose. Now she had neither. Going back to be part of the Order of Light was entirely out of the question. She wouldn't ever forgive them for what they'd done to her. It certainly wasn't the first time that someone had pretended to be nice to her or to be her friend without it turning out to be a cruel joke. She was going to avoid the punch line this time.

There was a loud hoot from behind the girl, causing her to turn around and seeing a typical Hogwarts barn owl perched on the edge of a desk. It was a carrying a simple roll of parchment, which made Luna realize it wasn't from Professor Slughorn.

Mutely, Luna untied the parchment. Unrolling it, she read the words quickly and sighed. As if things couldn't get any worse. Professor McGonagall wanted to see her in the Headmistress' own office. Luna knew that Professor McGonagall was a member of the Order of the Phoenix and probably now in Harry's camp as well. This meant only one thing: Harry was there to see her about something. Well, she'd humor him. With a swift motion she tore off the gold ring from her finger and threw it to the ground. It pinged off of the stone floor, but Luna was already storming away from it.

When she entered the Headmistress' office, she was surprised to find two men she didn't know along with both Professor McGonagall and Pansy Parkinson.

"Ah, Miss Lovegood, please take a seat," McGongall offered her, but her eyes were kept on the older of the two men. "Perhaps you can start by explaining why you are here, Ernest."

The Director inclined his head slightly. "We are here about a matter of expulsion."

Luna kept her gaze fixed on Pansy as she took in the information. She knew that Pansy was about to be expelled. She was merely here as a witness.

"Has Miss Parkinson done something that I am not aware of? If so, why has it not been brought to my attention beforehand?" asked McGonagall suspiciously.

The elderly man refused to meet McGonagall's gaze. "Miss Parkinson has done nothing wrong and is merely here as a witness. This concerns Miss Lovegood."

"_What_?" McGonagall exclaimed, rising to her feet.

Luna cocked her head to the side and stared at the elderly man as if trying to catch his gaze.

"Ernest, you must be mad! Miss Lovegood, expelled? What on earth for?" McGonagall snapped at him. She knew full well there was something wrong with this entire thing mainly because Pansy Parkinson was involved.

"Threatening other students' safety, mainly, Minerva," the black haired man at Ernest's side replied.

"Mr. Shaw, that is outrageous and I will not stand for it!" McGonagall barked angrily.

Frederick Shaw gestured to Pansy Parkinson with a look of amusement upon his face. His eyes were quite cold and calculating. "Miss Parkinson is here as a witness." He reached under his robes and pulled out a small pile of parchment. "Quite a few other students have sent in complaints about Miss Lovegood's behavior. There is a clear pattern." He dropped the stack of parchment on McGonagall's desk.

Luna wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she knew she was in danger. What difference did it honestly make, though? It's not like she had any purpose or friends. Her lower lip trembled for a second before she looked directly at Pansy Parkinson, who had a confident and smug look on her face.

"Oh, Zacharias Smith. Theodore Nott. Tracey Davis. Roland Harper," McGonagall stated as she flipped through the pieces of parchment. "I don't suppose you notice anything suspicious about the names of these students?"

Shaw looked like Christmas had come early. He grinned, showing off his teeth and took a step forward so that he was directly against the other side of McGonagall's desk. "What exactly are you suggesting, Minerva? The Headmistress of Hogwarts is supposed to be entirely impartial." His grin faded somewhat and he returned to his menacing posture. "I believe you said prior to the start of term how situations such as Miss Lovegood's be handled with extreme severity. By taking you out of the loop, we've managed to get a rather unbiased picture put together. It is obvious, right now, that we did the right thing."

Looking dreamily between McGonagall and Shaw, Luna was totally indifferent to the conversation. She began to hum a tune that she didn't remember the words too, but it was certainly a sad one. Her mother used to hum it after a day where she couldn't think of any new charms that needed to be invented. She saw that Pansy was mouthing some words that she could barely make out. _Good-bye?_

"_What_, exactly, did Miss Lovegood do?" McGonagall finally asked, sighing.

"Threatening and accusing certain students about such things. You agreed, did you not, that this kind of activity would not be tolerated? You cannot simply make exceptions based on who Miss Lovegood was friends with," said Shaw in mock thought.

McGonagall fixed him with a hard stare. "This isn't bias, Mr. Shaw, this is being wary of any evidence you might put forward, which you clearly have not put any forward."

"Miss Parkinson, if you would be as so kind as to tell Professor McGonagall exactly what you presented to the Board of Governors," Shaw gestured to the Slytherin girl, who until now had stayed relatively out of it, save for silently taunting Luna.

"Since the beginning of the school year, Luna has been following me around. I've certainly never done anything to need her following me, and it makes me fear for my safety," Pansy paused and looked directly at Luna. "She seems to think that I am a criminal or something. She's told me on numerous occasions that she'll be 'keeping an eye on me' and frankly I'm scared. She's done the same thing to many of my friends."

The Headmistress of Hogwarts merely nodded and turned to Luna. "Miss Lovegood, is this true?"

Luna never got a chance to answer because there was a tapping sound coming from the large, but only window in the office. She turned and looked outside. "There's something gently rapping on the window," she commented idly.

"Is that what that sound is? You know, some of us are trying to sleep! Your voices are pretty disturbing too!" one of the portraits called.

"Silence, Lenore!" McGonagall barked.

"Some of us are getting weak and weary from listening to this dreary!" The portrait fell silent, however.

Shaw looked towards the window and frowned. It was already quite dark out. "It was just the wind and nothing more," he stated angrily and turned back to Luna. "Now then, Miss Lovegood, stop trying to change the subject."

There was a rapping at the window once again and Shaw headed over and opened the shutter with quite a bit of flirt and flutter. "Surely if there was something on the window lattice it would let itself be seen," he said and closed the window with a bang. He drew the purple curtains closed. "Now, Miss Lovegood, no more of these silly attempts at distracting us!"

A loud tapping on the window caused Shaw to jump, turn around and throw open the curtains. He opened the window to look out and a black raven flew in and landed on the top of one of the bookcases.

"Nevermore!" Luna cried happily. It was always nice to see a friendly face in a depressing situation. "It's been a while since I've seen you!"

"You know this raven?" McGonagall asked, somewhat confused.

"Oh yes, a friend of daddy's at the Ministry owns him. They've used her to write back and forth since they were at Hogwarts," she turned her attention back to the raven. "Come here, Nevermore," she said dreamily and held out her arm. The raven fluttered down from its perch to her outstretched arm.

"Obviously Miss Lovegood doesn't even care enough to defend herself from the accusations brought forward," Shaw said, still in some disbelief as he slammed the window closed for the last time.

"They're only accusations now, are they? It sounds like you've already decided Miss Lovegood's fate. Perhaps she doesn't see it fit to even reply because this _evidence_ as you put it is nothing more than a few students words against her own," McGonagall had drawn herself up to the her full height and was engaged with a staring contest with Shaw. Ernest Andrews seemed content to stay out of the argument and Pansy saw it fit to keep shooting Luna smug glances.

The raven stuck out its leg and Luna carefully untied the roll of parchment from it. "What have you got for me, Nevermore?" she whispered, giving the bird a gentle stroke on the back. Luna was about to unroll the parchment when something caught her eye. One of the paintings that were pretending to be sleeping looked awfully familiar. Shaw and McGonagall were still shouting at each other, but Luna had given up interest in that as soon as it had started. "Stubby Boardman!" she exclaimed suddenly.

"Err, what?" Shaw asked stupidly as he lost his entire train of thought. "Nonsense is not helping you cause here, Miss Lovegood."

Luna entirely ignored Shaw and was gazing at one of the portraits. "You look just like Stubby Boardman," she told the portrait dreamily.

"Stubby _who_?" the portrait replied, abandoning his fake sleep act and glaring at the blonde girl. "I happen to be part of the most noble Black family. Stubby Boardman, _indeed_," the portrait of Phineas Nigellus turned his head to the side and refused to look at Luna.

McGonagall glared at the portrait. "Quiet, Phineas. That's enough." She looked back at Shaw. "Do you honestly intend to expel Miss Lovegood on the word of a few students? Do you not know that Miss Lovegood has been somewhat of an outcast for her entire stay at Hogwarts? Did it even concern you that these students might be lying?"

Luna hummed a slightly happier tune as Nevermore pecked her lightly on the back of the hand. "Sorry Nevermore," she whispered to the raven and began to rummage through her pockets. She withdrew an onion stalk and gave it to the bird. "I usually keep some around in case I come across any Snorkacks, but I know how you love them." The bird gave a happy sounding noise and retreated up to the bookshelf to munch on its reward. She unrolled the parchment, oblivious to the tense conversation around her.

_Luna,_

_I'm not sure how to tell you this, but your father has been the victim of an attack by You-Know-Who's supporters. The Ministry is trying to cover the entire incident up, which involved an attack on the Weasleys home and a Dementor take over of Ottery St. Catchpole. I'm sorry, Luna. Your father was a great man. If you need a place to stay, my house is always open even if you don't get along with my daughters._

_Francis Fawcett_

"Daddy?" she mumbled, re-reading the letter. As she did so, tears stains appeared over the parchment causing some of the ink to run. "Daddy's… no…" she said, louder, her voice cracking. She looked up and the first thing she saw was Pansy Parkinson with a large grin on her face. She turned towards the door and walked swiftly past a surprised Shaw.

"Correct, Miss Lovegood. You _will_ be leaving the premises now, under our escort to make sure you are actually leaving-"

"For Merlin's sake, Frederick, she's just received word that her father is dead! Hold your tongue before I hex it off!" McGonagall snapped angrily as she moved around her desk and headed after the girl. "Miss Parkinson, are dismissed. Return to your dorm immediately."

"Now just a second, Minerva!" Ernest's almost calming voice said, but McGonagall and Shaw had already rushed past them both and were hot on the heels of Luna. "Let's not be rash, here," he said to no one in particular before sighing. He turned and left the office, leaving Nevermore the raven swallowing the last onion stalk.

The Ravenclaw cried all the way to the giant front doors to the castle while McGonagall and Shaw argued a few steps behind her. She pushed her way out of the doors and let them bang closed behind her. Luna heard them creak open a few seconds later, but she was past caring. Daddy was the only one there for her and now he wasn't anymore. Neither was mummy. She had no purpose and no one who cared about her at all. She didn't even have Hogwarts to go to anymore. As soon as she reached the gates she grabbed her wand from behind her ear and Apparated away with an exceedingly loud crack.

"Under aged Apparation!" exclaimed Shaw angrily. "She's clearly a menace. The school will be safer without her. Come, Ernest." The two Ministry wizards left silently, leaving McGonagall alone and standing outside the gates of Hogwarts.

McGonagall wasn't quite sure exactly what had just happened, but she knew there was someone she had to contact.

* * *

Harry Potter had been having a rather refreshing time at Grimmauld Place with both Tonks and Ross, though most of it seemed to involve him turning red with embarrassment. The two seemed as if nothing could ever possibly get them down and their effect was contagious. He knew he was somewhat fooling himself, though. It seemed almost unfair that he was having a good time while Ginny and Hermione were in the states they were. He hadn't even had a chance to talk with Ron since they had some problems in Ottery St. Catchpole.

"You've singed your eyebrows twice already tonight," Tonks reminded him. "That's only slightly better than Ross."

"Look, it is our fault that we can't just magically grow them back like you can," glared Ross from across the table.

While Harry considered Exploding Snap to be a child's game that many students in their younger years, it wasn't even his suggestion to have a game. Of course, Tonks wanted to play a strip variant, but Harry had to nix that idea. He was ever so slightly regretting his decision when he realized that both Tonks and Ross were quite poor at it, but he also had a sinking suspicion that the two of them were suckering him in until he agreed. "And yet I'm still winning?" he said with a grin.

"Well if you're so confident in your abilities…"

"We could always raise the stakes…"

"Such as?" Harry asked, somewhat curious.

Before he could get an answer there was a loud scream and Tonks leapt of her seat and headed down the hall.

"What in Merlin's name was _that_?" Ross asked, entirely confused.

Harry was somewhat confused as well. Mrs. Black's portrait had been removed once he had become owner of the house. Apparently there was sort of charm on it that as long as the house was in the Black family's name it would stay up. He still couldn't find a way to remove the tapestry, but it was a good thing he didn't. "I'm not sure, actually. I probably don't want to know either."

"STOP YELLING YOU OLD HAG! I CAN UNDERSTAND ENGLISH JUST FINE!" yelled Tonks, her voice carrying all the way down the hall. Both Harry and Ross shifted in their seats that that they were staring down the hallway.

"_What's_ happening? Harry? Well actually he's right… _yes_ I was going to go get him… Hogwarts? Fine… I'll tell him already!"

Tonks reappeared in the kitchen was quickly as she had left and Harry was already on his feet. "That was McGonagall… yelling to make sure I heard her or something. She says there's trouble at Hogwarts and you'd probably want to-"

Harry never heard the end of Tonk's statement as he popped out of Grimmauld Place and directly to the gates of Hogwarts. He began to sprint even though he wasn't sure exactly what the situation was. Thankfully, there was no Dark Mark high above, but he still continued on his way up to the castle.

It took him a while to reach it and when he did he was nearly out of breath. He heaved open one of the castle doors. Professor McGonagall was waiting for him in the Entrance hall wearing her typical emerald green robes. "What's… going… on," he panted.

"Miss Lovegood was expelled by some members of the Board of Governors because of threats made against Pansy Parkinson. It was totally ludicrous and- Where are you going, Potter?" McGonagall begin, but was entirely shocked when Harry marched right past her.

_Luna… expelled for no reason… or because of Pansy. There's only one thing that she'd gain from removing Luna._ "Ravenclaw Tower," Harry stated.

"Ravenclaw… do you even know where- wait!" McGonagall began to hurry after him.

Harry's heart was pounding. What if he was already too late? He drew his wand when rounded the final bend just in time to hear some shouts from coming from the direction of his destination. There was an explosion as the suit of armor that guarded the entrance to the Ravenclaw Tower blew outward and smashed into the wall across the hallway before clattering down onto the stone floor.

"Out! Just retreat!" a female voice screamed. Two figures darted out of the common room and headed straight towards him. There were three flashes of light that flew from the common room and hit the far wall just seconds after the two people in retreat had scrambled out of the line of fire.

"_Stupefy_!" Harry cried, pointing his wand at one of the running figures. The boy barely had time to look up before the spell caught him in the chest. It was almost as if he had tripped. His legs seemed to collapse as he fell forward, face first, into the floor and skidded for a few feet.

"Potter!" screamed Pansy Parkinson, stopping herself only a few feet from him.

"My my, Pansy, what might you be doing in the Ravenclaw common room?" Harry asked through his gritted teeth. He was trying to keep his anger under control.

Pansy flinched back a few steps under his unrelenting gaze and burning emerald eyes. "Taking your little bitch, Potter. Zacharias might have got-" With a flick of Harry's wand Pansy flew backwards and hit hard against the stone wall. She slumped down into a sitting position.

"Do _not_ call her that," Harry warned, his eyes flashing dangerously. He was pointing his wand at the Slytherin girl's slumped form. His eyes caught something reflecting in the candle light. He kept his wand trained on Pansy, but inched along to the right until he could grab the object in his free hand.

Harry glanced down at the Order of Light ring in his hand. "Luna. What did you do to her?" he said coldly.

"Loony? Why do you care so much about her anyways?" Pansy spat as she wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.

"Because she's my friend," Harry replied.

"Friends with Loony Lovegood? Really now, Potter, you don't believe that now do you? You just wanted her to protect your little _bitch_-"

Harry took another step forward, and pointed his wand directly at her chest. "I said _do not call her that_!"

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Or what, you'll kill me? Honestly Potter, drop the nesting dragon act of being overprotective. You like the girl for some other reason."

"I'll do it!" Harry said loudly as if trying to convince himself.

The Slytherin laughed as there were footsteps echoing in the corridor. "Sure you will."

Harry turned, expecting to see McGonagall. He knew he had left the older woman back on the first staircase in his hurry to get up to the Ravenclaw tower in time. It was Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas. Harry frowned. "Did someone use the DA galleons?"

The two Gryffindors raised their wands in a robotic fashion. Harry barely dodged to the side as both of his dorm mates fired off Reductor Curses at him.

"What are you doing?" Harry exclaimed, more in shock than anything. He threw up a shield charm to deflect two incoming cutting hexes. As soon as the jets of light rebounded off of his shield he aimed and fired off a stunning charm and succeeded in downing one of his attackers.

"Stupefy!" McGonagall cried, taking down Seamus Finnegan with a well aimed spell. She panted a few times, clearly out of breath. "What the devil is going on, Mr. Potter?"

"I… I don't know, I had stopped Pansy and-" He barely noticed it, but in the corner of his eye he saw that Pansy had brought her wand up. Harry had no time to dodge.

"Confrin-" Pansy began, but her head simply lolled to the side as her eyes rolled up into her head.

"Thank Merlin, that was a destruction curse," said Terry Boot from down the hallway. He was standing just outside what used to be the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room and had his wand pointed directly at Pansy's slumped form.

"Twenty points to Ravenclaw," McGonagall commented dryly. "What happened?"

Terry sighed. "I'm not even sure how they go the password, Professor, but a bunch of Slytherins as well as Zacharias Smith came straight in and went after Sarah Potter. I think she surprised ol' Zacharias though," he said with a slight grin.

"Where is she? Is she alright?" Harry asked quickly, heading towards the entrance to the tower.

"Imperius curse," muttered McGonagall as she bent over Dean Thomas. "Figures."

Harry left McGonagall behind as he entered the common room with Terry. There was clearly a bunch of carnage in the common room earlier. Several tables were overturned and one of the blue couches had a burned hole on center cushion. There were books and pieces of parchment ever and one of the large bookcases had fallen over. He spotted Sarah sitting on one of the few remaining couches next to Justin. There were several other students hanging around in the common room looking rattled. "Sarah!"

The young girl looked up and immediately brightened. "Dad!" She jumped off of the couch and ran halfway across the room, not minding one bit that she stepped on Theodore Nott's unconscious form.

Harry pulled her into a hug and dropped himself down to make eye contact. "Are you ok?"

Sarah nodded, though she looked quite distressed. "Where's Luna?"

"I'm not sure, but she could be back at the Beacon…" Harry sighed.

"No she was upset about something," Sarah informed him.

"We'll worry about Luna once we sort out everything here, ok?" He stood up and glanced at some of the various bodies lying around the room. Whoever thought they could just waltz right into Ravenclaw tower and take Sarah was obviously quite stupid. "Why does Zacharias' face look like a baboon's backside?" Harry asked as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Luna taught me that one," Sarah said proudly. "If Justin and Terry weren't around… well… I don't want to think about it."

Harry didn't want to think about it either. There was one person that Harry didn't recognize, however. He was wearing Ravenclaw robes. "Who's that?" he asked Terry.

"Willis Sawyer. I'm not sure how he's involved with the Slytherins, but he was with them. I guess that's how they got in," the Head Boy explained.

It took them only a few minutes to magically bind the attackers together with enchanted ropes. When they were secured in a giant circle, their backs facing inwards, Harry revived them one by one. He decided to leave the baboon charm on Zacharias, though. McGonagall was currently fetching some of the Aurors stationed around the castle while Harry wondered why they hadn't shown up already.

Harry stopped in front of Pansy. "I'll ask you once. What happened with Luna?"

Pansy cracked a happy grin. "Oh Loony's father had a little accident and she finally realized she had no friends. She's probably killed herself by now, or at least that's what we all hope."

Seemingly out of nowhere Pansy was doubled over, coughing and spitting up on the ground. "You evil-" Sarah screamed, winding up to deliver a second kick into Pansy's stomach.

Thanks to his Seeker's reflexes, Harry managed to wrap his arms around Sarah's shoulders from behind and pull her back just in time. "It's not worth it, Sarah," he stated in disgust as Pansy wretched on the floor from her seated position.

"But Luna! How could they do such a thing?" The young girl was sobbing now.

Harry sighed. "I'm not sure, but I'll find her. You've spent a lot of time with her lately. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?"

Sarah looked down in thought for a moment. "She said there's a forest near her house where she used to go when she wanted to be with her mother. I think they used to go there while she was still alive."

"Describe it to me," Harry asked at once.

"Moonlilies. She said there were lots of Moonlilies that, at night, looked like clusters of stars on the ground. It was just a small forest… right near her house." Sarah went on to describe the house in a decent amount of detail from what she remembered.

"Alright, stay here with McGonagall," Harry said as he looked around. McGonagall had just appeared in the Ravenclaw common room looking angry.

"No Aurors! There are no Aurors anywhere in Hogwarts. They've all left without saying a word. Unforgivable…"

"I'll be back after I go find Luna," Harry informed her. "Just keep these people here."

"I'm coming too-"

"No, Sarah. You're staying here with Professor McGonagall, Justin and Terry. I'm not sure what type of mood Luna is going to be in at the moment." Despite Sarah's further protests Harry headed down towards doors. When he reached the entrance hall, a lone raven fluttered down from the chandelier and landed on his shoulder.

Harry quickly found that he couldn't shoo the bird away since it kept returning to his shoulder, so he sighed and continued on down towards the gates. He made a mental note to bring his Firebolt next time he needed to come to Hogwarts.

He concentrated hard on Sarah's description of the Lovegood's property, though mainly the forest since he was sure that the house would not be looking the same anymore after the Death Eaters had visited the other night. He pictured the silver Moonlilies as he waved his wand. He felt himself sliding through a tube and finally landed in a small dark field.

"Lumos," he whispered. There was a slight peck on his shoulder, which caused him to glance to the side at the raven. The bird cocked its head to the side a few times as if pointing to something. It took off and began a slow flight towards the outlines of some trees.

Though he wasn't exactly sure what was going on, Harry followed the raven through the field and towards the forest. As he got closer, he began to see the faint silverly glow emanating from the underbrush. _Moonlilies_, he thought happily. However, his nerves began to grow as he drew closer and closer to the forest. He was more scared of actually finding Luna than not. What exactly would he say to her?

He reached the tree line, but the raven continued to fly deeper still. Harry waved his wand once to extinguish the light on its tip since the somewhat eerie glow of Moonlilies provided more than enough light. There was a small simple trail cutting directly through the center of the trees into the deepest part. It didn't take long to find who he was looking for.

Only a few feet down the trail Luna, still wearing her standard black Hogwarts robes with, was seated on log that had a massive width. The log was so large that the girl's feet hung a few inches from the ground and were swinging idly. Her face was buried in her hands and she seemed quite unaware of his approach.

There was a fluttering sound in the leaves and the raven swiftly landed on Luna's shoulder, jerking her attention up. "Hello Nevermore, what are you doing here," she said, trying to choke back her tears. She looked up at saw Harry, but stayed silent.

Though he wasn't sure what to say, Harry took a few steps forward, but left a few feet between him and the log where Luna was seated. "Luna… I'm… I'm sorry."

For the first time ever in Harry's memory, Luna looked up at him, but it wasn't a look of mild interest or her typical dreamy expression. It was a look of anger or disgust and it cut him deeply. She didn't reply to him, though.

Harry flinched. "Please, Luna. Don't believe what Pansy Parkinson of all people said. _Please_." He didn't get a reply or a change in reaction so he took a deep breath and continued. "I'm not really sure why you'd believe Pansy instead of me and the rest of your true friends, but it hurts me personally. I really do value you as a friend, Luna, though maybe I really don't show it enough." He walked over and sat down on the far edge of the log.

Luna turned her head to the side slightly and gave Nevermore a few strokes with her fingers. She then looked straight up at the moonlight that was filtering through the tops of the trees.

"The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin!" Harry said suddenly. This caused Luna to look over at him eye to eye. "It sounds like something so stupid, but I've never told anyone else that before. Not even Ron or Hermione." He paused again. "Did you know that the only time I talked about Sirius and death was the one minute we spent at the end of your fourth year?"

The Ravenclaw girl shook her head slowly as Nevermore hopped from her shoulder to her head and cocked his head to the side before staring at Harry. "No, I didn't know that," Luna said softly.

"Well, it's true. You're the only one I can really tell things like this, Luna, and I'm not sure why. I guess I just trust you completely with the information, or perhaps because you're unbiased. If I told Hermione, she'd give me a ton of suggestions or something, but not you. You're different," Harry sighed again, feeling somewhat depressed.

"Hermione and Ron don't seem to care for me," Luna pointed out as she was still trying to control her tears.

"Ron's warming up to you, trust me. Hermione… well…" his train of thought broke down. Luna looked at him curiously, so he explained all of what had happened the night before. "I… I don't know what to do, Luna. I'm totally overwhelmed by this and I can't really tell anyone about it. They look up to me to be strong, but I just don't feel like it. I'm no Dumbledore."

Luna maintained eye contact which would have been unnerving to anyone else, but not to Harry. "Of course you aren't Dumbledore. You're Harry Potter."

Harry cracked a weak smile. "Or so I've noticed. Look, Luna, you can't believe how much it helps me to just be able to say that the whole situation is overwhelming. As for Ginny, I know she's feeling quite put out with the amount of time you've been spending with Sarah. As for Sarah… I'm not sure how to even thank you for that. I may not be the best person to talk to about problems and I'm glad that she looks up to you as much as she does."

"I suppose I've been foolish," Luna said, but when she looked down the trail and off into the distance, "but… daddy…"

Sliding down the log until he was beside her, Harry put an arm around her shoulders. "You're probably blaming yourself. I did the same thing with Sirius, but after talking to you and thinking about it for a while, I've come to a conclusion. It wasn't your fault, it was Voldemort's fault and that's why we have to stop him. I need your help, you know."

Luna merely nodded and wiped some of her tears away. "You know, the Moonlilies only bloom under moonlight."

Harry gave her a grin, "Hence their name, but… Luna, I can't help but notice you're changing the subject." He felt the girl tense under his arm and he knew he was on the right track. "I'm probably the last person to tell you to let it out given what I've just been telling you, but… well… Let's see. How should I put this. I know you probably think conversations are boring and are too easy to follow or something, but you've retreated into your own little world." He tried to gauge her reaction, but found that he couldn't read her expression. "From the comments you make you sound like you were a lot more open before your mother died. I'm not saying you should be open up to anyone in particular, but maybe you should try it. You're hurting just like I am, but at least I feel like I can talk to you."

Hanging her head, Luna nodded. "Would you like to take a walk?"

Harry was somewhat stunned. "Didn't I just say-"

"I find a walk always allows me to talk about some things," Luna stated simply as she slipped off the log gracefully and landed on her feet leaving Harry to scramble after her. "When I was younger I always used to come here when I was upset. I find the glow of the lilies calming," she informed him when they were further down the trail and heading deeper into the forest.

Harry nodded and walked silently beside her, marveling in the soothing glow of the Moonlilies. He immediately understood why Luna came here when she was upset.

"Mummy always used to come find me and then I'd tell her what was wrong, but when mummy died… no one came for me," Luna said before breaking down into tears again.

Unsure of what to do, Harry put his arm around her shoulders again. "When I was upset I used to just imagine a better world… and I guess when I turned eleven I found it, though there was always this Lord Voldemort fellow hanging over my head…" He knew his attempt at light hearted humor wasn't timely, so he sighed again. "I guess we're both in the same situation."

The two of walked for a few more minutes in silence before they reached a clearing. In the center there was a large boulder that was completely illuminated in the moonlight. Luna walked straight up to it and climbed to the top before sitting down. Harry followed her more cautiously.

"This is where Mummy and I used to watch the stairs and moon. She liked astronomy, you know. You're the only person to come here beside my mum and I. Not even Daddy has been all the way in here… and I guess he never will," said Luna sadly as she looked up at the nearly full moon.

The two of them talked for a few more minutes before Harry mentioned that they should head back to Hogwarts as Sarah would most likely be quite worried about both of them. Unfortunately he had just spent the past minute making Luna even more upset and guilty after telling her what he had just left at Hogwarts.

"Don't worry about it," Harry informed her. "I think we both taught her enough to protect herself, though it wouldn't be my first choice to let her defend all alone. Apparently Zacharias Smith was hit by a certain baboon's backside hex…" he couldn't help but laugh and was happy to see that Luna cracked a smile as well.

"I suppose he really is suffering from Loser's Lurgy now," she commented dreamily. She was still upset over her father, as was natural, but Harry had helped put some things in perspective.

"Here, this is yours. It's good to have you back, Luna," Harry said as he handed her the ring he had picked up earlier at Hogwarts.

Luna slipped the ring back on her finger and wiped the last of her tears from her eyes. "I'm glad you came and found me, Harry," she said before standing slightly on the tips her toes and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm not sure where I would have ended up if you didn't."

* * *

When the two of them returned to Ravenclaw Tower, Harry was somewhat frustrated to see that McGonagall was still in fact waiting for the Aurors to show up. Sarah was overjoyed to see Luna back and Harry breathed a sigh of relief that at least that had gone right. He was heading past the tied up group of assailants when the youngest of them there called out to him.

"I… I didn't want to do anything! You have to believe me!"

Harry ignored him. He didn't want to listen to any of them. They had just undertaken a plot to either harm or kidnap his daughter for a bargaining chip and he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of making him feel even slightly guilty.

"Your handy work again, Potter?"

Harry turned around to see Dawlish and two other Aurors striding up. He shook his head. "No sir, it was Terry Boot and Justin Finch-Fletchley that stopped this, mainly." He leaned in so he'd only have to talk in a whisper. "But for the moment I'd prefer if you'd omit Justin's name for the time being."

Dawlish gave him a hard look and then nodded. "Alright, I'll see what I can do." He turned back to the two Aurors that had accompanied him. "Let's get these problematic children out of here."

"Move. All of you. On your feet right now," one of the Aurors directed the six prisoners with a wave of his wand. Grudgingly they all got to their feet and began a steady trek down the hall away from Ravenclaw tower under the close supervision of the two Aurors Dawlish had brought with him.

"No! Please listen to me! I didn't want to hurt Harry Potter's daughter! They made me-" the hysterical voice of the Ravenclaw yelled as they were being lead down the hallway.

"Shut it!" spat Theodore Nott.

"You have to believe me! Please! They said they'd-"

"I said shut it!" Nott said again.

The female Auror to the right of the group frowned and wordlessly cast two silencing charms on the talking captives. "No talking."

The Ravenclaw boy continued to flail his arms and trying to catch Harry's attention. Harry was hesitating. The situation sounded eerily like what he had witnessed in Dumbledore's Pensieve regarding Barty Crouch Jr. There was always the possibility that he was simply trying to get out of it. Crouch Jr., after all, clearly was a Death Eater. "Stop," Harry called out to the Aurors, surprising everyone including himself. "I want to hear what he has to say."

The two Aurors who were escorting the group of prisoners exchanged glances, but stopped when Dawlish nodded. With a wave of her wand, the female Auror removed the silencing spell.

"I… I didn't want to hurt your daughter," he sobbed. He was trembling now. "They… they made me. They said that-"

"Shut up you stupid disloyal-" Pansy never got to finish her sentence before Dawlish silenced her and then every other prisoner, except for the Ravenclaw boy, in turn.

"They said that if I didn't let them into the tower they'd hurt or kill my family… I… I had to believe them. I have a younger brother in Hufflepuff… and Zacharias Smith said they were 'good friends'… I had no choice… please you have to believe me," the trembling had given away to just plain sobbing now. "I didn't… I didn't know what to do. They said they'd know if I told anyone… I… I'm sorry, please believe me!" Willis Sawyer sobbed now, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

Harry fixed him with a hard stare and tried to size him up. It was times like these he wished he had bothered to learn Legilimency, but the thought of invading another person's private thoughts was not something that appealed to him. Dumbledore did it often, he knew, but there were differences between himself and Dumbledore.

Sensing Harry's doubt, Willis continued. "I… I told them that Luna was watching over her because they demanded I tell them everything… I like Luna… I didn't know they were going to insult her and try to make her leave"

"Well what did you think they were going to do to her?" Harry snapped back angrily. "Did you think they'd just ask her nicely to go away?"

Before Willis could reply to that, though he looked even more hurt by Harry's comment, Justin stepped up beside Harry. "I think he's telling the truth, Harry. He was nervous all night, especially after Luna left the common room. Then when Pansy and Zacharias came in, he drew his wand, but didn't really help either side. I guess since Pansy's group seemed to expect him there we just stunned him too in case."

Harry nodded. "I suppose..." He shrugged towards Willis. "What you did was still wrong, but I can understand it. I'll put in a good word for you, but I can't stop the Aurors from taking you right now."

Willis looked slightly relieved, but Dawlish joined into the conversation. "Well, if an eye witness agrees with you, and you yourself believe his story then there is no reason to hold Mr. Sawyer." The two Aurors gave him surprised looks that turned to glares, but removed the binds holding Willis to the rest of the group. "Take the rest of them away, fast."

After thanking Harry profusely, Willis headed down to the Hufflepuff common room to check on his younger brother, leaving Harry and Justin alone at the moment.

"Harry, I want to come help you fight… You-Know-Who-" Justin began, but caught Harry's look. "Fine, Voldemort. I want to help fight Voldemort. I don't really have a place here, and it felt good getting even the slightest bit of vengeance against Pansy and some other Death Eaters for my parents." He glanced behind him. "Err, sorry, Professor. I just don't feel that my purpose is here right now."

"Quite understandable, Mr. Finch-Fletchley. I'm beginning to feel the same way myself," McGonagall replied.

"No, Professor. You have to stay here. If you leave, the Board of Governors will most likely fill the Headmaster's position with someone we don't want there, especially if what you told me earlier about your meeting with Luna is true," Harry growled in frustration. "This could be a lot easier."

"Mr. Potter, try to remember that the original war was only won because of your mother's excellent charm work and sacrifice. We would have surely lost otherwise," McGonagall commented bluntly.

Harry nodded solemnly. "Alright, Justin, I guess you'd better go get packed if you want to come with us." He looked over Justin's shoulder to see Terry Boot hanging around Luna and Sarah. "Terry, how about you?" he asked as he walked over.

"Harry, my parents are purebloods as I am. If I did that…" he sounded disappointed.

"I asked about you, not your parents," Harry reminded him.

Terry gave him a weak smile. "I'm not sure I'd be much help… and right now I can't even think about how to explain dropping out of Hogwarts to my parents without telling them why."

"Well, if you ever change your mind you can send me an owl." Terry assured him that he would, so the only thing left to do was convince Sarah and Luna to return to the Beacon. This incident was far too close to risk it happening again. While Pansy and her cohorts had been arrested and removed from Hogwarts, there still could be more. If Voldemort was smart, he wouldn't jeopardize all his agents in one gamble. Even if the plan had succeeded there was no way Pansy and company could have stayed around.

"Sarah, Luna, I think it would be better if you both came back home instead of staying here the rest of the year," Harry began, knowing this was going to be an uphill battle.

Both of the Ravenclaw girls surprised him when they readily agreed, obviously having enough excitement for a year, so the four of them including Justin headed down towards the Entrance Hall. This was a journey that Harry had taken several times this evening and it was catching up with him. This time, however, it was a nice and leisurely pace. That changed when they reached the Entrance Hall and met Dawlish.

The giant doors swung open again and the female Auror that had accompanied Dawlish ran in. "They… they escaped!" she gasped.

"What?" Dawlish roared, looking up from the clipboard he had been making notes on.

"We transferred them to White's group to transport to Azkaban, but just as they were preparing to Portkey them, the entire group activated their own Portkey," the Auror explained.

"Where in Merlin's name did they get a Portkey? I thought we checked for that sort of thing!" Dawlish said, turning white.

"White gave it to them. He's a Death Eater. Alastor Moody tried to tell you about that last week, but I guess he never succeeded," Harry fumed bitterly. _Why is it so difficult to listen to someone actually intelligent? The Ministry really has problems_.

"White? Henry White has been an excellent Auror for decades!" shrieked the female Auror.

"We'll check this out, Harry. You'd best just head home," Dawlish said, looking grim. He left with the female Auror hot on his heels.

Harry gritted his teeth. _Can things really keep getting worse and worse_?

* * *

Harry sat alone in the small observatory deep in thought. Since arriving back at the Beacon, he had become depressed again. He had talked a short while more with Hermione and explained what had happened at Hogwarts to everyone. Ron hadn't returned from wherever he was, but Neville had told him that Fred and George had gone to spend time with their family.

He spent a while longer showing Justin around the Beacon and basically telling him what exactly what expected of him. Harry eventually settled down in his depressive funk and just tried to think about what needed to be done.

The main problem was that every single time something began to go right for them, some equally as bad went wrong. Sure, Pansy and a bunch of Voldemort's supporters were removed from Hogwarts, but he also had no one there beside McGonagall now. Hagrid was off wherever and he hadn't even seen his friend since the night Dumbledore died.

Thinking of Dumbledore hurt even more at times like this. For the first time he fully felt the burden that Dumbledore must have had on his own shoulders for a far greater period of time. Many people were looking up to Harry himself to lead them to victory, and he wasn't sure he could handle it. Right now he wished nothing more than to have Dumbledore to give him a little pep talk as per the usual at the end of his year.

Another problem was that he was having trouble controlling his anger. Between the Ministry letting Pansy, Zacharias, Nott and the others escape right under their noses because of White, but being back with Hermione and Ginny resurfaced his anger with the Lestranges. He had just spent time talking with Luna about how keeping your anger and feelings inside you was a bad thing, but he didn't feel like dumping anymore on her while she was still mourning the very fresh news of her father's death.

Harry pulled out an ordinary muggle diary with a black leather cover. Though it was much like Tom Riddle's, Harry thought it was fitting. Of course he wasn't going to be enchanting it to contain a piece of his soul to suck the life out of its readers, so it was ok.

The first thing he did was organize the vengeance thoughts in his head. He wanted to clear these first, so he began to write a list.

_1. Voldemort - My parents. Starting this whole stupid thing. Causing everyone pain and suffering._

_2. Severus Snape - Killing Dumbledore. Playing everyone for a fool. Treating me like less than dirt for no reason all those years and eventually betraying the kindest man in the wizarding world._

_3. Peter Pettigrew - Betraying my parents, Remus and Sirius. Putting Sirius in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit._

_4. Bellatrix Lestrange - Killing Sirius. Torturing Neville's parents._

_5. Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange - Torturing Hermione. The Dursleys._

_6. Amycus and Alecto Carrows - Sarah and Justin's parents._

_7. Fenrir Greyback - Biting Remus, Dudley and killing Dudley's friends._

Harry then started a second list of everyone he was fighting for and why.

_Sarah - Being dragged into this for no reason other than being a muggleborn. Having her parents killed because of me and me alone._

_Hermione - Standing with me and helping me defeat Voldemort and his minions as much as possible, even when it caused her to take severe injuries._

_Ron - …_

He continued, writing Ron's entry followed by Ginny's.

This list took him far longer to complete and was in no particular order. Harry's depression was back once he had finished this list, but at least his anger had left him for a while. He finished his diary entry with a run down of his feelings over being overwhelmed as well as a rundown of both the battles at Hogwarts and Ottery St. Catchpole.

Harry headed down to his room once this was complete and placed his diary on his bookshelf right beside Dumbledore's Pensieve. He looked into it sadly for a moment, seeing flashes of certain scenes from Dumbledore's memory. "You know, sir, I wish I had one of your lemon drops now."

The next thing Harry knew there was a blinding flash of white light and he felt himself falling. Amazingly, he landed on his feet and began rubbing his eyes to clear them.

"I daresay we can find you a lemon drop, Harry."

Harry blinked rapidly as his vision returned to him. Squinting, he saw Albus Dumbledore standing before him, very much alive. "Professor Dumbledore! You're alive!" he exclaimed.

Dumbledore chuckled silently. "No, I'm afraid I'm nothing more than a mere memory, Harry. I am not sure what has happened to my real self, but I will assume from that comment that it was not something I would have liked." Harry couldn't hide his disappointment. "Nevertheless, Harry, I am to be your guide to a most important memory of mine." The old wizard lifted an arm and pointed off in the distance.

It was now that Harry realized he was standing in what looked to be a battlefield. What grass and vegetation had been there originally had been destroyed by years of warfare. Instead shell holes, trenches and barbed wire seemed to litter the countryside. Off in the distance Harry could see divisions of foot soldiers advancing on one another, but in total silence. It took him a moment to see what Dumbledore was pointing to.

A lone figure was making his way to where Harry and Dumbledore were standing. He wore long black robes and had a hard, almost predatory look on his face. At once Harry thought he knew who this man was.

"That, Harry, is the Dark Lord Grindelwald," Dumbledore explained, confirming Harry's suspicion.

To be continued.


	14. Wolfing down History Lessons

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 14 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Jane wrote the summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching, whatever that may be. Honestly, AJ, we need to figure out what that is.

A/N - I've received numerous reviews about the Order of Light's lack of training. You should assume that unless otherwise stated (or there was no feasible way they could have trained, such as the entire day that chapter 13 covers) that they have 'trained'. This could mean anything from researching new spells, practicing said spells or practicing their dueling, accuracy, speed, endurance and what not. If I kept stating that they were training it would get entirely repetitive and tedious.

I've also reviewed answering some questions or comments posed to me since the last update. Keep in mind it may take a few hours to show up. Thanks to those who reviewed.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 14**

**Wolfing down History Lessons**

_"History teaches everything including the future." - Lamartine_

"That, Harry, is the Dark Lord Grindelwald," Dumbledore explained, confirming Harry's suspicion.

One of the first things that Harry had ever learned about Albus Dumbledore was that, among many other great things, he had defeated the Dark Lord Grindelwald in 1945. Harry felt like kicking himself. Throughout the years he had forgotten this very important fact. Dumbledore had defeated another Dark Lord and he was about to show Harry how it had been done so he could finish off Voldemort.

Even the memory of Dumbledore seemed to read his mind. "I have not shown anyone else this memory, Harry, but I have no doubt it will aid you in the fight against Voldemort." Harry's eagerness grew as Dumbledore continued speaking. "You may wonder why I did not show you this memory during your sixth year at Hogwarts and I shall tell you right now: I was going to do so, given time, but I thought it was best to preserve a more interactive memory in case something should happen to me. By your presence here I am regretful to say that something has."

Harry nodded solemnly and opened his mouth to speak, but Dumbledore began again before he got the chance.

"Telling me about the circumstances of my death will serve no one, Harry. I am a memory and cannot guide you in any matters unless it relates specifically to what you see here. Now then," Dumbledore said as he turned his head to the side and watched Grindelwald stalk ever closer. "I suppose you are interested in why you are viewing Grindelwald instead of another memory about Tom."

"Err, yeah," Harry replied lamely as he watched Grindelwald levitate himself over a particularly deep shell hole on the destroyed earth. "What is he doing?" Grindelwald had his wand in hand now and was doing some rather broad sweeping motions with a look of concentration upon his face. The Dark Lord frowned further after he completed his last motion.

Dumbledore gave Harry a small smile. "He is trying to detect someone who has made themselves quite invisible. However, his knowledge of magic is far too advanced for him to be unable to detect my magical presence completely. He can feel that someone magical is around, but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve myself."

"So then you're hiding here?" Harry asked, though still watching Grindelwald intently. The Dark Lord now had cast a shimmering pink dome that was slowly expanding in a circle around him.

"Over by that rather unhealthy looking tree, if memory serves," Dumbledore explained as he gestured to a tree that looked like it had been blown out of the ground by an artillery round. "Perhaps you'd like to know why I am here? By that I certainly do not mean me, as in the memory, but rather my younger self." Harry nodded intently and Dumbledore chuckled slightly, obviously having a good time. Harry thought that the memory was a perfect representation, though eerily like Tom Riddle's diary.

"I suppose a bit of history on the situation would benefit you quite a lot and we have an ample amount of time before Grindelwald discovers how I have hidden myself. I believe only a few students have ever managed to pay attention to Professor Binns," Dumbledore seemed to sigh. "Your mother, along with Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood seemed to be among those very few that paid attention and achieved Os on their O.W.L.s, but alas I digress." Harry flushed slightly at the mention and guiltily remembered his days spent copying Hermione's History of Magic notes. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled briefly at this reaction before he continued. "You may remember from your brief visit inside of Tom Riddle's diary, I was Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts at the time of Tom Riddle's graduation. While Tom was gaining support inside of Hogwarts for what he was eventually going to do with his close circle of friends, Grindelwald was using his magical powers to influence Germany into a muggle war."

Harry gaped at this. "He… Grindelwald started World War II?" He had learned about World War II when he had attended a muggle school prior to his eleventh birthday. At the time he had never suspected any magical influence, but since he didn't even know the Wizarding world existed at that time it wasn't surprising.

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "He began to influence powerful figures in what became known as the Nazi Regime during the late 1920s and early 1930s. While he did not hold them under the Imperius curse like I suspect you are thinking, Harry, Grindelwald used a more advanced form of Legilimency." Harry's eyebrows rose at this comment. Dumbledore beat him by speaking first again. "You see, Grindelwald's mastery of Legilimency surpasses even Voldemort's. While Grindelwald was certainly not the most powerful Dark Lord, he made up for it in ruthless tactics and very clever manipulation of the mind. You see, Harry, Grindelwald was able to plant suggestions and even disable certain inhibitions."

"But… sir, does that mean Grindelwald was responsible for Hitler's actions, the entire war and the resulting Holocaust?" Harry stammered. This was far too much information to take in all at once.

Dumbledore shook his head this time and sighed sadly. "Grindelwald did nothing to influence Adolf Hitler at all except keep his closest friends and political supporters from denouncing his ideals and plans. Would anyone have supported Hitler fully like his friends did if they hadn't been kept from disagreeing? I do not really know the answer to that, Harry, but for whatever reason Grindelwald took a lot of satisfaction in manipulating muggles into starting a huge war with other muggles in an attempt to wipe them out. Yes, like Voldemort, Grindelwald had a great hatred of muggles though I do not know what caused it."

Harry thought for a moment before speaking. Grindelwald was still trying different means of detection to try and find Dumbledore. "So the Wizarding World went to war before Voldemort? How does Voldemort even fit into this? Was he involved in the war?" he asked nearly all at once. Dumbledore merely smiled at his curiosity.

"I am quite glad to see you digging for all the correct information," the former Headmaster said with no small amount of pride. Dumbledore glanced to the side to see what Grindelwald's progress. "We have a while yet before he finds me. I must say that hiding from view and avoiding detection has been one of my specialties." He turned back to Harry. "No, Harry, the Wizarding World did not go to war in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Very much unlike Voldemort, Grindelwald did not desire dominance over both Wizarding and muggle populations alike, but he definitely did appose anyone who stood in his way. I would assume, though it is only a guess, that he felt that muggles were inferior and not enough was being done to drive their threat and kind from the earth. Unlike the muggle war and the Axis forces, Grindelwald himself was not a threat to wizards in France or Britain. If you think about it you will find that you probably have never heard anyone truly speak ill of Grindelwald if they even speak of him at all."

Nodding slightly, Harry had to agree with this. "But sir, he was starting a huge war! How could no one speak ill of him or care about his actions?"

Dumbledore gave another small smile. "Ah, but Harry, I definitely did not say that no one cared about his actions. Before we get to that I should remind think that you realize how the Wizarding World reacts to situations that do not entirely concern them. Unfortunately it is one of the biggest failures."

"They don't care about things that don't directly involve them, sir," Harry answered instantly. "But, sir, how could it not directly involve them? Britain was bombed and nearly destroyed by the Axis forces that Grindelwald prompted into action!"

"Correct, Harry, and if you were still in school right now I would award you ten points, but alas we are not. Wizards and witches in the 1940s were not in danger by the muggle weaponry. It was far too weak to get through magical shielding charms. Wizards simply set up larger shield charms around and wards around their houses and key locations, such as St. Mungos and Diagon Alley. They could simply continue on their lives as if nothing happened." Dumbledore stopped for a few moments and saw that Harry was still slightly confused. "Grindelwald himself only visited Britain on one occasion in his life. Do you know anything about a man named Rudolf Hess?"

Harry wracked his brain for the answer. The name sounded quite familiar. "Yes, he was the Deputy Fuhrer in Nazi Germany, but ended up fleeing to Britain in an attempt to end the war," Harry said, proud of himself that he remembered.

"Correct again. I daresay Gryffindor would be happy to have your knowledge if this was a classroom setting, but it is not so I will simply continue with the history," the former Headmaster's eyes twinkled again. "What you wouldn't know from your muggle upbringing and knowledge, although it is very correct if somewhat incomplete, is that Rudolf Hess was a wizard." Dumbledore ignored Harry's next look of surprise. "While Grindelwald did not actively try to recruit witches and wizards to his cause, he did have a few close friends that, using his influence with powerful muggles in Hitler's regime, placed in positions of power to oversee the entire war and make sure it wasn't close to ending until he deemed fit." He paused to let Harry soak all of this in. "Now Hess realized, albeit rather late, that Grindelwald was quite mad." Harry thought this was a bit of an understatement. "He decided to flee to Britain to convince the Ministry of Magic to lean on their muggle counterparts to end the war. The Minister of Magic refused due to laws prohibiting the British Ministry from interfering with muggle politics. Hess was not to be deterred, however, and began to speak to the muggle governments himself as the Deputy Fuhrer. This went against Grindelwald's goals so the Dark Lord himself tracked Hess down and killed him so that his secrets would remain safe and the war would continue. You may have believed that Hess was safely in a detention center up until the time of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, but that was merely the British Ministry of Magic stepping in to cover the involvement of wizards."

Harry's mind was reeling with all this information.

"It is actions like the blatant murder of his old friend Hess and of many rival political wizards, for it was not against the law in Germany at the time for wizards to be active in muggle politics, which earned Grindelwald the title of Dark Lord. Unlike with Voldemort, the title Dark Lord was not simply assumed by himself as a show of ego. Had Voldemort simply waited the population surely would have given him the same title, but you must remember, Harry, that Voldemort is extremely arrogant and very much an elitist. He would have felt lesser if he had let his inferiors give him a title."

"Sir, that doesn't explain why Grindelwald wasn't hated by witches and wizards in France and Britain. They even gave him the title of Dark Lord…" Harry asked. This didn't make any sense to him.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled again and he gave Harry another simple smile. "Yes, I seem to have gone off on a tangent there, but let us get back to the matter at hand. The title of Dark Lord does not necessarily mean the person is evil, corrupt and must be stopped at all costs. Quite on the contrary, actually. There were a few wizards and witches with the title of Dark Lord, or Dark Lady respectively, which simply were masters of the Dark Arts, but did not actually use them for evil or against others. The Dark Arts does encompass a very large, mysterious and powerful branch of magic. While many people who have studied the Dark Arts like Tom have become corrupted by the evil and power it gives, there have been some who have not."

Harry thought Dumbledore was starting to sound a little too much like Snape did when teaching them Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Err, sir, that still didn't answer the question," Harry reminded him hesitantly.

"Alas, you're quite right!" Dumbledore said, chuckling jovially like Harry remembered him from his first few years at Hogwarts. "Many Wizarding families in Britain along with France, Belgium and other European countries agreed with Grindelwald's ideals, to a degree. I highly doubt you will have trouble figuring out some of the families in Britain that thought this way."

"The Malfoys and the Lestranges," Harry answered immediately without even thinking.

Dumbledore inclined his head slightly. "Among others, yes, though I will warn you to not judge the Malfoys and Lestranges solely on the actions of Lucius, Bellatrix and Rodolphus. Once again we are getting slightly off topic so I shall try to steer us back on course. Many of the so called Pureblooded families that were against muggles and muggleborns supported Grindelwald's actions, but were far too scared to get themselves publicly mixed up with Grindelwald. Some, however, felt the need to travel and meet this Dark Lord who so literally put their deepest thoughts and desires into action." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and once again he answered before Harry had begun to open his mouth to speak which made him wondering if even Dumbledore's memory was capable of Legilimency. "I know you are instantly thinking of Tom, but this time you are wrong, Harry. Tom Riddle went to work at Borgin and Burkes after he graduated. Some of his close friends from Hogwarts such as Bernard Rosier, father of the Evan Rosier who later became a Death Eater and was responsible for disfiguring Alastor Moody's nose, was one of those who went to meet Grindelwald, perhaps even on Tom's orders or suggestion."

"So Tom admired Grindelwald's work, did he?" Harry asked with a sickening feeling in his stomach.

"I would imagine so, Harry. I daresay it would be best not to dwell on that. There are many other things for you to be sickened by that relate to Tom's transformation intoVoldemort and that one is rather minor. Tom researched and followed the actions of Grindelwald while he was working for Borgin and Burkes."

Harry took this in and nodded, seeing where this was going. Voldemort was planning some sort of actions even while he was in school to continue Salazar Slytherin's ideals. Harry had to assume that at this point Voldemort already had two Horcruxes and committed at least four murders. Of course watching how Grindelwald operated would be key to his own plans in the future.

"You may be wondering where I come into this whole story, but I'll tell you straight out that I did not come here to stop Grindelwald or bring him to justice as an Auror or a member of the Order of the Phoenix, which did not even exist at this time. I came out of concern for some of my most promising students that were falling into the corruption from the Dark Arts. Rosier was only one student from Hogwarts, but there were others as well and not all from Slytherin," Dumbledore stated as he watched Grindelwald's progress in scanning. The Dark Lord was coming close to the fallen tree now.

Harry smiled. This was exactly like something that Dumbledore would do.

"I thought I had failed them as teacher because they, despite all warnings, were dabbling in the Dark Arts. However as I didn't realize at the time these students were merely reporting for Tom, or so I have come to assume. I am sure you have noticed how he likes to stay hidden and out of suspicion and use others for his dirty work." Harry nodded. "On this specific day I did not plan on confronting Grindelwald. Truthfully I never wanted to confront Grindelwald. I was not, at the time, some sort of figure that everyone assumed would save them from this Dark Lord or that, but merely a school teacher that loved to teach and educate young minds. If I didn't go to Germany and appeal to my former students I would have truly failed them. Now, I believe I am about to be revealed…"

Grindelwald had grown close to the fallen tree now, but he seemed confused as to how to actually make Dumbledore reveal himself. There was a whistling in the air before a large clump of land exploded right beside where Harry was standing. There was a giant cloud of dust that obscured Harry's vision entirely until it settled down. There was a second incoming shell and Harry immediately flinched turned his back futilely. It landed a few feet in front of him.

Dumbledore gave him a small smile. "It is but a memory, Harry. It cannot hurt you."

Harry grinned sheepishly, deeply embarrassed. He noticed for the first time that the soldiers and battle had come quite a bit closer. There were now artillery shells and mortar rounds landing all around them. "But can't the soldiers see Grindelwald? He must look pretty suspicious…"

"No, I'm afraid they cannot. Grindelwald has cast some ancient spells around himself to make himself and his magic invisible to muggles. He can, of course, make himself visible if he wishes. As you will see shortly when Grindelwald and I engage each other in battle that the muggles are quite unaware of the happenings."

There were more shells inbound now and the battles began to rage all around them. The sounds of explosions, screaming and gun fire made it hard for Harry to hear what was going on with Grindelwald. "What's going on in the war?" Harry shouted over the racket.

"Behind us, though quite a few miles still," Dumbledore said as he watched the battle with interest. "Is the German capital of Berlin. It is the summer of 1945 and the Allied forces have overrun the army of Nazi Germany on both sides. From the East, the Russian army is nearly at the city. Grindelwald never expected Germany's war machine to falter because he underestimated the power of a unified opposition. Had Britain, France and the United States, along with Russia, not unified against a common threat Grindelwald's plot surely would have succeeded. Alas, he failed to realize that although the numbers are still the same divided as they are unified; the power is greatly increased when all parties are working towards the same goal. I believe Grindelwald felt it impossible for Britain and France to work together with the United States and Russia, but in the end he was proved wrong."

Harry's cheeks burned again. This sounded awfully like the Sorting Hat's words from a few years ago.

Dumbledore continued, "It is here we find Grindelwald himself in a last ditch effort to save Germany and his chances to keep the war going. He was preparing to use dark magic on the Allied forces to scare them away from the capital and perhaps give him time to formulate a plan. By pure luck I happened to arrive and distract Grindelwald before he use the destruction spells he was planning on."

Instantly Grindelwald cast a shimmering shield around himself and a split second later a much younger Dumbledore, the one Harry remembered from the memory he saw in Tom Riddle's diary, appeared out of nowhere and cast a similar charm. Another second later an artillery shell landed right beside the two wizards and launched another cloud of dirt. Shell fragments and dirt bounced harmlessly off their shields.

who are you and why are you here

"I am here to see my students," Dumbledore replied calmly. Harry noticed, however, that even though Dumbledore had lowered his shield he kept his wand at the ready. This younger Dumbledore was a lot more cautious that Harry had seen the present day Dumbledore when he had dueled Voldemort in the atrium of the Ministry.

English scum, they are not your students anymore, they are mine

"I shall make that judgment after I speak to them," Dumbledore continued to speak calmly as if trying to do anything besides provoke Grindelwald.

For a second Harry thought that Grindelwald was going to back down and the situation would resolve peacefully. Then with a lightning fast movement the Dark Lord slashed his wand upwards from its resting position at his side. A yellow slash in the air appeared and streaked towards Dumbledore and Harry was sure that the younger Transfiguration professor would have no time to reaction.

The younger Dumbledore surprised him and Grindelwald both by conjuring a reflective mirror out of nowhere that bounced the spell off to the side. With a quick flick of his wand a spare rifle, which was dropped by a fleeing soldier moments before behind Grindelwald, transfigured into a large black dog which bore a resemblance to Sirius' animagus form. The dog jumped up and sunk its teeth into Grindelwald's behind.

Grindelwald shrieked in pain and pointed his wand behind him. The dog let out a howl as it was blasted away by a point blank Reductor curse. As the pieces of what was Dumbledore's dog hit the ground they turned back into scrap metal.

It was the only opening Dumbledore needed and Harry saw that Dumbledore's younger self was even more formidable than when Harry had seen Dumbledore battle Voldemort in person at the Ministry of Magic. The opening Grindelwald had given the young Dumbledore was more than enough as the auburn haired man flicked his wand almost lazily and sent the dark robed figured to the ground. Another flick of his wand and Grindelwald was disarmed and Dumbledore swiftly pocketed it.

If Harry had done one thing wrong it was underestimate Grindelwald and it appeared that even the younger version of Dumbledore did as well. Grindewald simply stuck out his hand to the ground. A very visible shockwave rumbled through the earth spreading outwards with Grindelwald himself as the epicenter. Dumbledore had quickly reacted with a shield charm, but that proved as useless against a tremor as it had for the Death Eater that slipped on Harry's Glacius spell in Ottery St. Catchpole. When the ripple of earth reached Dumbledore's feet it threw him off balance to where he fell hard on his rear. Before Dumbledore could react, Grindelwald was staggering to his feet.

"Incoming!" screamed an American soldier that Harry didn't even notice was standing right next to him. Harry instantly heard the whistles of more incoming shells.

One dropped right besides Grindelwald who was entirely focused on Dumbledore and never had a chance to put up a shield. The whole area was enveloped in dust and Harry couldn't see that what had happened.

"Perhaps we should move closer," Dumbledore suggested quietly. It wasn't really a suggestion though and Harry followed his former Headmaster towards the area where his younger self and Grindelwald had been dueling. "I am about to do something I am not proud of, but it was necessary."

As the dust cleared Harry gasped and blinked. Grindelwald was lying on his back bleeding from many wounds. It took Harry a second to notice that has right leg was entirely missing, but the Dark Lord was still alive, barely, and gasping for breath. Dumbledore was also wounded, having taken some shell fragments in his knee.

"That, Harry, is how I ended up with a most unique scar in the shape of the London Underground…" the older Dumbledore said softly.

The younger Dumbledore hobbled over to where Grindelwald laid bleeding and choking on the ground. With a quick swish of his hand, Grindelwald's breathing seemed to cease, but the pain seemed to ebb away and his face relax. His eyelids slowly closed and before Harry knew it, Grindelwald was dead.

"I ended his pain and suffering, though he was as good as dead from the simple muggle artillery shell that neither of us could have stopped," the older Dumbledore explained. "As you're about to see, the story is about to be quite mixed up…"

There were three pops from Apparating wizards and witches, two of them wearing Hogwarts robes.

"Lord Grindelwald!" cried the oldest of the three who was the one wearing simple pitch black robes. He immediately collapsed to his knees besides Grindelwald's bloody body.

"I think it is time we headed back to Hogwarts, Mr. Rosier," the younger Dumbledore said as he transfigured small rock into a walking stick for himself. "And you-" Harry couldn't hear what he said due to another shell dropping close by. "I'm disappointed in you both."

Harry took a few steps closer to the other figure, and saw that it was a young woman of about seventeen or eighteen. She was quite attractive with her long brown hair and brown eyes. She lowered her head in shame at Dumbledore's comment. Then Harry's eye caught sight of a Gryffindor emblem on her robes and was quite taken aback.

"As I have refrained from saying in your presence until now, Minerva McGonagall was quite the beautiful young lady back in the day," the older Dumbledore mused out loud.

"That's Professor _McGonagall_?" Harry exclaimed. It wasn't the fact that he had just thought of one of his old professors as quite attractive, but the fact that Minerva McGonagall had been interested in either the Dark Arts or Grindelwald's ideals.

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, though I shall tell you that I trust Minerva explicitly."

_Oh brilliant, that's exactly what you kept saying about Snape_, Harry thought to himself, but he nodded anyways.

"You… you killed Grindelwald," said the figure who Harry assumed had to be Rosier.

"Yes, but only to end his suffering," the auburn haired Dumbledore explain.

The scenes and everyone but the memory Dumbledore and Harry himself began to fade out of view. A few seconds later, the memory Dumbledore began to fade himself.

"Wait! What happened after that?" Harry asked loudly as if his guide would have trouble hearing him.

"As you may have guessed, upon hearing that Grindelwald died from a mere muggle weapon of war, Tom Riddle's need for immortality grew stronger. At the time of Grindelwald's defeat, Tom Riddle only had two Horcruxes, or so we suspect. Grindelwald's true followers erected a tomb in his honor, detailing his exploits."

Dumbledore was fading more now and Harry could see right through him as if he was a ghost. "Remember, Harry, you've never failed to make me proud." With that Dumbledore disappeared entirely and Harry found himself standing in his room again beside the dormant Pensieve.

Harry closed his eyes in a silent prayer to Dumbledore before realizing he was holding something in his hand. He opened it to find a single lemon drop. He wasn't sure whether he should laugh or cry, but he knew there wasn't time for either. He needed to tell everyone what he had just heard and he needed to think about what he'd learned about McGonagall. Still, the most important thing was Grindelwald's tomb.

Though Dumbledore didn't have enough time to explain before the magic he had used to preserve that specific guide expired, Harry was sure that Tom Riddle had gone to Germany to visit Grindelwald's tomb just to detail the Dark Lord's actions. For the first time Harry fully appreciated Voldemort's patience and plotting. He hurried out of his room and nearly ran straight into Sarah, who was about to knock on his door.

"Can I borrow Hedwig? I need to write to one of my friends whose still at Hogwarts. He'll be worried about me," Sarah asked, clutching a letter in her hand.

Harry blinked for a second, clearly not expecting this and having his mind focused intently on Voldemort. "Err, yeah, sure. She's up in the loft… area," he replied, still not exactly knowing what to call it. He was just about to walk past her when he caught sight of the name on the envelope. "Clifford _Lestrange_?" he bellowed.

Sarah frowned. "Yes, why?"

"Do you have any idea who the Lestranges are? They're almost as bad as Voldemort himself! The Lestranges are the ones that tortured and killed Neville's parents, tortured Hermione and killed Sirius!" he was very close to losing control as his hatred for the Lestranges was almost as close to his hatred of Voldemort.

"Cliff isn't like that!"

"Oh, he's Cliff now? Was Luna telling the truth about a boyfriend? You can't write to him, he's probably the Death Eaters' contact at Hogwarts!"

"How can you say that without even meeting him?" Sarah exclaimed, her face flushed. "He's not anything like these other Lestranges!"

"And how would you know?" Harry shot back.

"Fine, whatever!" Sarah said, clearly upset as she marched back to her room and slammed the door closed.

Harry didn't have time to worry about that right now, though he knew he'd have to sort it out before he went to bed. He thought of something and headed back into his room and emerged a moment later carrying the dragon horn Charlie had given him. He blew in it as loud as he could.

Naturally the horn had the effect Harry had expected and a mere five minutes later Harry's inner council was seated in Hermione's room. While Harry wanted to include Susan, he didn't want to leave Justin as the odd man out. He'd probably relay everything about Grindelwald's tomb to Susan tomorrow anyways and then Justin once he had mastered a bit of Occlumency. Harry explained the entirety of the Pensieve memory, except any mention of McGonagall, in one breath and was gasping for air at the end.

"Blimey," was all Ron could say. It appeared that it was all anyone could say.

"Now," Harry said, pacing back and forth at the edge of Hermione's bed. "We need to find this tomb, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to ask where it was located, if Dumbledore even knew." Absentmindedly he unwrapped the lemon drop and tossed it into his mouth.

"Maybe its right where he died?" Ginny suggested.

"Wouldn't that be a little close to Berlin? I think people would notice even if there were tons of muggle repellent charms on it. Plus there are wizards and witches in Germany too. They'd get around repellent charms." Everyone looked over at Neville. "What? It's probably off somewhere in Germany where there are few people."

Harry nodded. It made perfect sense, but of course that made their task even harder. "I guess we'll be spending a lot of time researching until we find it."

There was a loud bang and everyone jumped. Hermione had created the sound so that people would pay attention to her blackboard. _Someone had better move half the library up here then because this is my specialty_.

Harry gave her a smile. "Well, Ron, it looks like we have some lifting to do…"

After levitating two large bookcases into Hermione's room, Harry headed upstairs to his bedroom, but stopped just outside of Sarah's room. He gently knocked on the door, but received no answer. The light was still on, as he could see from under the door, so he slowly entered.

Sarah was lying on her bed fast asleep with the Marauder's Log open at her side. Harry sighed and headed over to the light and turned it off, but not before picking up the still sealed letter to Clifford Lestrange from the nightstand. He crept out of the room, and up to the loft. He knew he had jumped to conclusions and he was rather sure there was nothing bad about the friendship Sarah had, but still he had his doubts. He roused Hedwig and handed her the letter. Before heading to bed he watched the snowy owl fly off into the night.

* * *

Two days later no one had found anything in any of the books in the Beacon, but Harry knew that he could get the books from Grimmauld Place and possibly search the Hogwarts library, but he felt the pressure building. In addition to leafing through books for most of his time spent awake, Harry had given Tonks and Ross a tour of the Beacon so that they wouldn't have to rely on owl post when they needed to reach him. Unfortunately, all the two women did was talk about how Harry was indeed a 'fine catch'.

Tonks found having access to the Beacon very useful when she appeared in the middle of the afternoon in a huff and informed Harry that Remus was back from wherever Fenrir Greyback and his werewolves were and needed to speak to him. Harry immediately dropped what he was reading, much to Hermione's scorn, and headed back to Grimmauld Place with Tonks in a rush.

"What's going on with Dudley?" Harry asked immediately once he came face to face with Remus Lupin in the sitting room of Grimmauld Place. Remus looked tired and a lot more shaggy than usual. This reminded Harry that the full moon was either tonight or tomorrow.

"I'm not exactly sure how to tell you, but Dudley is Greyback's right hand wolf," Remus said sympathetically.

"What?" Harry blurted out as he rose from the seat he had taken on a couch across from Remus. "How in Merlin's name did Greyback convince _Dudley Dursley_ of all people to serve Voldemort?"

If the situation hadn't been so serious Remus might have laughed at Harry's ignorance. "Harry, Fenrir Greyback doesn't serve Voldemort at all. In fact, he despises him. I told you last Christmas that Greyback bites children and raises them to hate wizards."

"Alright, I can see how Dudley already hates wizards, but then why is Greyback allowing his werewolves to be under Voldemort's command?" Harry asked, slowly sitting back down.

"It beats the alternative. Right now he gets support from Voldemort and specific direction. Greyback is a horrible planner himself and Voldemort helps to direct him to good targets," Remus explained.

"Sort of like the Dementors, then?" Harry asked and got nod in return.

"Exactly like the Dementors. The Dementors as well as Greyback and his werewolves don't really care about Voldemort's goals or his ideals. Greyback doesn't want to fight against Voldemort. He's just a madman and wants to infect as many people as possible," Remus trembled slightly, perhaps remembering his own experiences with Greyback.

Harry sat in silence for a moment. It all seemed to come back to Voldemort, which was no surprise, but it was all becoming clear that if Voldemort were defeated the werewolves and Dementors would desert, so to speak. He knew that many Death Eaters were only serving Voldemort because they wanted power or they were scared to oppose him. Of course, Voldemort couldn't be stopped until Harry managed to find and destroy his four remaining Horcruxes.

"Anyways, the full moon is tomorrow night and Greyback's hinted that Voldemort has given him some targets," Remus said, shaking his head sadly.

"He doesn't pick his own?"

"Like I said, Voldemort directs him to viable targets. You have to be very careful, you know. It's true that werewolves have a pretty bad reaction from silver, but we're definitely not immortal. A muggle gun firing regular bullets will work just as well and more and more muggles are arming themselves now that the Prime Minister declared his state emergency for northern Britain. That means most of his easier targets are gone and Greyback isn't really the type to go research where wizarding families live and even if he did he could make a mistake and attack a family of a Voldemort supporter. It's much safer for him to allow Voldemort to dictate where he goes."

"I guess we're going to have to stop them," Harry said with a small smile. He was looking forward to having a second encounter with Greyback ever since the incident with Dudley and his gang.

Remus didn't react the way Harry had hoped. "Absolutely not! Werewolves aren't like dealing with Pansy Parkinson, though good job with that," Remus began, flushing with pride. "Fully trained wizards and witches don't try to fight werewolves while they're transformed. They're fast, strong, and resist injury."

"So I should just let Greyback bite whomever he pleases?" Harry said, irritated.

Sighing, Remus shook his head. "I think it might just have to be that way. You can't save everyone no matter how hard you try."

"I realize that!" he snapped back. "I realized that when Cedric's life was tossed aside. I realized that when Sirius died. Or when Sarah's parents got killed on the train platform. Or perhaps the two innocent people in Diagon Alley or the Dursleys." Harry took a breath. "They don't scare me, Remus. I can't allow them to scare me. Someone has to try to protect these people, if no one does, what do we have left?"

"Why do I get the feeling I'm talking to James?" Remus sighed unhappily. "I didn't think it would work, but I figured I had to try at least to talk you out of it. I won't be able to help you save everyone, but at least the family where I'm supposed to be attacking. No, I don't know where that is right now," he said before Harry could even speak. "I've taken the Wolfsbane potion, of course, which means I can tell you where we are after we transform…" he paused. "Look, I don't like it, Harry. It's just too dangerous. I shouldn't even be telling you this."

"Remus, you have to! Someone has to stand up to Voldemort," Harry got up and started pacing again as he thought over the situation. "Suppose you tell us where we're supposed to go and we simply head there and remove the family from the area? Maybe we could try to lure the werewolves away, too."

"Well I can see there's no stopping you at all so I suppose I'll just have to be nervous until it's all over," he sighed again. "Now then, Harry, perhaps you'd like to fill me in on this Horcrux thing that Tonks is talking about?" Remus raised an eyebrow and glared at Harry, causing the young man to feel like he was back in third year and Remus Lupin was still has Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Harry flushed at the comment. It wasn't meant to be hurtful, but he trusted Remus explicitly and he was one of the people that he hadn't told yet. "Before I met Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban I had to keep it quiet in case it got out, but Voldemort knows now anyways which makes it more difficult. As you know, loose lips sink ships," Harry explained, but caught sight of Remus' confused look. "Err, maybe you don't know. It's just a muggle expression meaning that the less people know the less chances of it getting out. Not that I don't trust any of you, of course."

Remus chuckled. "Albus was very fond of that tactic so I fully understand." He raised an eyebrow now. "And meeting Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban? Perhaps we have a lot to catch up on now that you don't have a vow to secrecy."

Harry grinned and began to retell everything about the last few months while Remus had been infiltrating Fenrir Greyback's werewolf community. While he was recalling some of the battles or moves he had pulled in battle he felt a sense of accomplishment. Though he was always depressed after each encounter for the loss of life or the injuries he and his friends had received, looking back on it they had succeeded quite well.

"She transfigured him into a mouse and chased him around the inn with the Reductor Curse?" Remus asked loudly, wiping a tear from his eye while trying to restrain himself from laughing out loud. "That's horrible!" he said, though his laughter betrayed his words.

"Oh she tried to stun him first, but that forced her to be too accurate and Flint was pretty fast. Quidditch training, I guess. The Reductor Curse allowed her to hit bigger areas, but he still got away. Ginny was pretty mad that she didn't get him," Harry said, trying to stop his own smile. He didn't want to outright kill any Death Eaters, or anyone other than a select few, but it was quite hard when they were trying to kill him and his friends. "And Neville. You have to see Neville. He looks the same, but you'll hardly recognize him."

"Neville always had the potential to be great, but he just needed a purpose and some confidence," Remus mused. "You seem to have given him that."

"No, Bellatrix Lestrange gave him that and it's going to be her ticket to the grave, mark my words," Harry said somewhat grumpily. Thinking of any of the Lestranges made his blood boil.

Harry spent a few hours more talking with Remus which helped to lift both their spirits considerably. He mentioned to Remus that they were currently researching both muggle and magical Germany for signs of Grindelwald.

"I wish I could help," the elder Marauder replied wistfully. "Greyback doesn't exactly give me time off. I'm just glad he's off plotting with Voldemort right now so I could come here."

Hesitating, Harry had come to a decision. He knew he couldn't save everyone unless he defeated Voldemort, but he needed all the help he could get finding the Horcruxes. "Though I value the information you're getting from Greyback, maybe you could help the rest of us track down the Horcruxex? If Voldemort is stopped then everything else should fall apart, like the Dementors and Greyback. To do that we need to find his Horcruxes. Maybe after tomorrow night you could come help us research Germany for any bits of information on Grindelwald? If Voldemort himself isn't stopped even more people are going to die and there's nothing I can do about it."

Remus looked relieved. "For a second there I thought you were about to tell me that old guys like me weren't useful." He chuckled before flinching visibly. "I've got to get going. For a day before the full moon and a day after we're still affected, though we don't transform."

"Shouldn't Wolfsbane stop that altogether?"

"It does, mostly, but I'd rather not take any chances. Werewolves crave flesh and I'd rather not start looking at you and Tonks that way," Remus said. Disappointment at having to leave was evident in his tone and facial expression.

* * *

It was later the next evening that Remus, looking very agitated, Apparated into the sitting room at Grimmauld Place. Immediately Harry and the rest of the Order of Light, minus Susan and Hermione of course, jumped up. They already had their wands raised and hoods drawn.

"The Sawyer house. They're wizards, though I don't know why they're being targetted. There are only three people inside. One is a little boy, probably about nine. He's the main target. It's in Surrey, actually, near Little Whinging. Three story house, big broad window on the front of the third floor. It's painted a bright red, oddly enough. There's an Anti-Apparation ward placed on the house directly. You have about ten minutes before Greyback shows up." Remus seemed to be growing shaggier right before their eyes. He started staggering backwards, awkwardly, but managed to Apparate away safely before he transformed.

"We don't have time to waste. We need to get the Sawyers out of there," Harry directed. He stopped short of Apparating when he noticed Justin looking hesitantly, but still had his wand drawn. "I'll be along in a second," he commented, waving Ginny and the others on. "Nervous?"

Justin nodded. "I guess you think I'm a coward."

Harry shook his head. "Hardly. I'm still scared every time I have to fight or stand up to Voldemort, but I look at it this way. Voldemort's biggest fear is death and I personally don't want to be like Voldemort in anyway at all." He paused and winced. "Perhaps that doesn't make you feel any better, but I the reason I continue to do this is because there are too many people I care about that will get hurt along with hundreds of thousands of innocents that I've never met before. I'm one of the people that can make a difference and you are too."

"You're right. I don't want to be like V-Voldemort. Let's go," the Hufflepuff nearly shouted before he popped out of the room. Harry followed moments later.

The first thing that Harry noticed, that worried him, was the fact that the house was rather large. There was a tall brick wall surrounding the property, which was located on a slight hill at the end of a road in a well off district. A solid iron gate was locked and secured. In front of the gate, Ginny, Ron, Neville and Luna were attempting to open it.

Once he reached the gate, Harry shook his head in disbelief. The Sawyer residence was like a miniature mansion. There were smooth columns on either side of the door, but Harry didn't have time to take in the scenery. He did, however, note that the third floor, which was the top floor, had an extremely large bay window just as Remus had said. There was a walkway which led through the large garden and past a small fountain to get to the front door.

"Great," Harry sighed, turning his attention back to the front gate. "They just had to live in some huge place that'll take forever to find them."

"_Alohomora_!" Ginny said, ignoring Harry. The lock clicked open. "So much for security. What's the point of an Anti-Apparation ward if a spell that even a first year knows can get in?"

Harry had a really bad feeling about this, but he knew that he couldn't simply run away. The situation fit. Willis Sawyer had basically betrayed some Death Eaters and now his family was paying the price. "Who knows, but keep alert and let's just get in and get out." The group nodded and followed him silently up past the fountain and to the front door. Another quick unlocking charm and the group entered the house just as there was a high pitched howl from somewhere over the property's wall. It was immediately followed by about five more.

"Barricade it!" Ron snapped before slamming the front doors closed and nearly catching Ginny's robes in the door as he did so. She scowled at him before magically sealing the door like Hermione had done in the Department of Mysteries. "The windows now!" Ron was already on the move around the ground floor barking orders to his sister.

Harry spun around and headed towards the large staircase at the side left side of the entrance hall. "Come on, we have to wake up everyone here and get them out… somehow," he added the last word under his breath. If there really was an Anti-Apparation ward on the house and a wall surrounding the entire yard the only way out would be past the werewolves.

Harry led Neville and Luna up the stairs quickly, not caring about the sound they were making. The faster the Sawyers were awake the faster they could plan their escape. As they reached the second floor, Harry collided painfully with a small table that was pressed against the wall. He groaned and silently cursed the fact that it was dark in the house. Almost immediately he felt like hurting himself as he flicked his wrist and ignited the end of his wand.

From the illumination at the tip of his wand, Harry was able to see a rather elegant hallway. The tile floor was a simple checkered pattern, but there was a clean shine to it. A bright red rug that went the entire length was present down the center of the hallway. There were at least six rooms in this particular hall, but it branched off into a second hallway at the end. "Quickly!"

The first room Harry opened the door to and peered inside had massive wooden display cases on all four walls. There were even extra tables set up in the middle. Hundreds of trophies and golden plaques reflected and glinted under the light from his wand. The surprise of seeing so many awards lasted only for a moment until he heard a door slam closed behind him. _I can look through this later, maybe_, he thought as he closed the door and headed down the hall.

After searching all six rooms that were filled with random items and non-living objects Harry stumbled around the corner and came face to face with a large man pointing a wand directly at his throat. "Don't move, you bloody Death Eater. I'm not joking, either. If either of the two other bastards behind you try anything I won't hesitate." The man grabbed him by the neck and pulled the wand from his hand while Neville and Luna watched helplessly.

"We're not-" Neville started, but stopped instantly as the man reacted with rage.

"Shut it! Sneaking around my bloody house. I knew you sodding bastards would be here soon after my son stood up to you at Hogwarts!" the man roared and tightened his grip around Harry's neck.

"He's… telling… the… truth," Harry wheezed. The crushing hand around his neck wasn't relenting and he was having a nearly impossible time trying to breathe.

"Dear, they aren't wearing black or masks!" A woman about the same age as the man peeked out from behind his broad shoulders. She also had a wand in her hand and was dressed in a pink bathrobe.

As if to drill home Harry and Neville's points about them not being Death Eaters, there was a loud sound from downstairs as a window smashed. Howls and snarls followed along with the sound of cracking that Harry knew all too well came from the Reductor curse hitting wood.

"Back!" Ron's voice echoed up from the first floor. The two Weasleys could be heard scrambling up the stairs.

"What… what's that?" the woman asked nervously.

"Just some werewolves," Luna replied dreamily. "They seem to want to make you their next course." The woman's state of agitation grew.

The woman turned to her husband. "What should we do?" she asked with a stressed tone.

"Don't let them eat you."

"Not… helping… Luna…" Harry gasped and tried to pry the man's strong fingers off of his neck.

There was another explosive sound and a lot of cracking wood from somewhere down the first hall. Harry, though his vision was blurring, looked back over his shoulder as best he could when he floor shook. Ron and Ginny skidded around the corner and nearly collided with Neville.

"That should hold them for a while… I hope," Ron commented, nearly out of breath, before looking up at the scene before him. "What the bloody hell is this!" he exclaimed, pointing his wand at the man.

"Lower your wand, Death Eater, or I'll snap his neck!"

"Death Eater? Are you bloody well blind? Do you see me dressed up for Hallowe'en with some sort of ruddy mask on-"

The man angrily dropped Harry to floor, who immediately gasped for air, before taking a few menacing steps forward towards Ron. "You little-"

The woman leapt forward and placed a calming hand on her husband's shoulder. "For heaven's sake, Harold! They're just children!"

"But they're-"

"Not Death Eaters," Ron snapped. "We're here to bloody well save your lives."

"We only got tipped off like five minutes ago. We have to get you and your family out of here right now before Greyback and-" Harry intervened quickly as Ron and Harold Sawyer continued to glare daggers at each other.

"Greyback! Fenrir Greyback? Why that-"

"Harold!" the woman chided him again. "_Please_, let's take Mark and get out of here! There are werewolves _in our house_!" She was clutching his upper arm desperately now, pleading with him.

Harold Sawyer clearly didn't like the idea about abandoning his house or working together with a bunch of strangers dressed in cloaks, but he nodded anyways. "Go get Mark and Apparate away. I'll drop the wards, but we've got to get the Meyers out of here."

"The Meyers?" Harry asked blankly as he brushed himself off. The sound of growling and claws raking across solid wood could be heard from around the hallway by the stairs.

"Clara, go!" Mr. Sawyer barked angrily. "They could get through that half assed barrier any second." Ron opened and closed his mouth angrily, but didn't reply because Ginny stepped down rather hard on his foot. "I need two of you… whatever you are… to come with me to Apparate the Meyers away. They're muggles."

"Muggles?" Harry asked. "Nevermind." He shook his head and realized it didn't matter what the story was. "Neville, Luna, Ginny. Make sure Mrs. Sawyer and Mark get out of here. Ron and I will go with Mr. Sawyer and get the Meyers out."

"They have a daughter at Hogwarts in Willis' year," Harold explained and took a step away from his wife and the opposite direction Harry was intending to head. "Wait a minute… those names… that means… you're…"

Harry removed the hood of his cloak. "Yes, Harry Potter. Amazing isn't it? This isn't the time for that!"

"Right… you're right," stammered Mr. Sawyer. "The Meyers are down in the guest rooms…"

Harry and Ron followed Mr. Sawyer while Neville, Luna and Ginny headed in the opposite direction with Clara Sawyer. Harry's group rounded another bend just when there was a loud crash and the sound of claws tearing up a rug or some other fabric. The werewolves he broken through whatever barricade Ron and Ginny had erected. The three wizards raced around yet another corner in the large manor before coming to a set of double doors.

"Christopher! Janice!" Harold called, banging on the door loudly. It was immediately answered by a very nervous looking man with light brown hair. The woman behind him, with short dark brown hair was holding an infant firmly against her chest. Without saying anything Harold immediately strode into the room, rudely beckoned Harry and Ron in and then slammed the door shut.

"Let's just Apparate out already!" Ron suggested, turning white as there was a heavy panting on the other side of the door.

"Muggles can't do side by side Apparation," Mr. Sawyer said rather calmly. Ron's eyes went wide. "You two can leave if you want, but I had to make it sound like we'd be leaving right away otherwise Clara would never have left. I'm going to take the Meyers out of here, but by car."

"No we're going to get out of here in a matter of seconds-" Harry began as he rubbed his Order of Light ring.

The doors flew open and three werewolves, two of them large and grey and one of them smaller and more slender with a brownish tint to its fur, leapt into the center of the room, scattering the occupants.

One of the large grey werewolves nearly caught Harry's shoulder with a swipe as the Gryffindor dove off to the side slide across the wooden floor into the wall beside an old dresser. He didn't even have a chance to see what had happened to the others as the wolf that had attacked him filled his view again with its jaws open wide and drool running from its large tongue, over its teeth and onto the floor. Suddenly the werewolf's upper jaw seemed to explode off of its body and showering immediate area with a thick red blood. Harry realized his wand was pointing up at where the werewolf's head used to be, but his arm was trembling badly. He didn't even remember casting a spell. He blinked a few times and slowly raised a hand to his face to wipe the blood off of his cheek. Wiping his bloody hand on his already badly stained cloak, he shakily got to his feet.

There was another shattering window which caused Harry to slide back into his sense, though he was still rattled from his close call a second ago. Harold Sawyer had smashed the window and was helping the Meyers out onto the steep lower tier of the house's roof. Ron was firing spouts of flame from his wand to keep both werewolves at bay. "_Incendio_!" Harry cried again, directing his wand at the nearest werewolf. The wolf caught on fire and the stench of burning hair filled the room, making Harry's stomach lurch uncomfortably. The werewolf howled and whimpered in pain as it rolled around on the floor, though it failed to put out the magical flames. The whole howled again, a very pained cry, before sprinting out of the room and down the hall while trailing smoke.

The second wolf, the slender brownish one, snarled and took a few predatory steps towards Harry, though was somewhat wary of him, and rightfully so. Harry had already pointed his wand at the wolf's front right leg and fired off another spout of flame. It hit the floor, igniting some of the wood with magical flames. The wolf, however, wasn't as intimidated as he hoped. Instead it backed up a face paces before sprinting forward and leaping through the flames. Caught flat footed, Harry flinched away, but the werewolf seemed to be banished off to the side and collided with one of the old armoires in the room.

"Harry! Let's go! I can't see them out there," Ron called over the crackle of the flames that were dancing around the ground and spreading on to the bed.

Harry turned to the werewolf, which was now shaking its head. It was limping slightly as it stalked towards him slowly, having injured a leg colliding with the old piece of furniture. "_Stupefy_! _Incarcerous_!" he bellowed in quick succession. The stunning spell hit the werewolf in the head and collapsed it to the ground while the binding spell bound it tightly in conjured ropes. He turned to head over to the window, but the flames had spread across the length of the room and effectively sealed him off from his means of escape. "Fleuvius!" he said, making a steady stream of water erupted from the tip of his wand. There was a hiss as the flames started to go down. Harry heard Ron cast a similar spell and aim towards the bed to beat back the flames. Harry merely hoped at this point that he could avoid a repeat of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Behind you!" Ron yelled frantically out of nowhere, causing Harry to whip around and shoot a stream of water all over the slender werewolf that was now busy shredding its bonds.

"_Reducto_!" Harry cried. The spell hit the werewolf in the chest and pitched it back into the armoire again where it lay unmoving. Taking a few breathes, Harry remembered that werewolves had some natural immunity to magic and generally were quick healers.

"Close call," Harry heard Ron mumble as the redhead went back to dousing the flames.

Harry was staring at the werewolf he had just killed and was horrified to realize that it was slowly shrinking back to its human form. Before his very eyes he watched as the slender brown werewolf shifted back to a girl with a gaping hole in her chest from where she had been hit from a spell. She couldn't have been older than sixteen or seventeen judging by how young and thin she looked. She was most likely a muggle due to her simple jeans and long sleeved shirt. Her hair was a reddish brown, which made since given the color of the werewolf's fur. Luckily her eyes were closed because Harry knew he wouldn't have been able to bear looking at her had her eyes been open. That wasn't to say that it was easy, however. He felt sick to his stomach upon realization, or rather remembering, that werewolves were real people too just like Remus.

Instead he had slaughtered them like animals. They weren't even controlling their own actions and were only werewolves because someone like Fenrir Greyback had gone around biting people. Harry looked over at the werewolf whose blood was still all over his robes and in his hair. While the top half of the man's head was gone from Harry's Reductor curse, the simple outline of a well built man was still there covered in his own blood. Harry felt sick to his stomach. These people were most likely muggles that Greyback neglected to tell about the Wolfsbane potion and then convinced to hate wizards or simply held under Imperius. "I…" he began, but Ron cut him off.

"Come on, Harry! We have to get out of here!"

_Does he not care? No… no he didn't just slaughter two people that probably didn't have a choice in their actions._ There were three howls in echoing form somewhere in the house that made Harry focused back on his objective. There were three more muggles, one of them an infant, which were still in danger simply because their family member was a witch. Ron had put out the fire entirely and Harry set out to follow him out the window and after Mr. Sawyer.

Luckily the Sawyer's manor had a two tier roof otherwise being on the second floor as they were would only allow them a straight drop to the ground. Instead there was a slightly steep roof just below the window in which they could walk on. Harry steadied himself as he stepped out the window while Ron lead the way as he was the one that saw where Mr. Sawyer had led the Meyers. "They went around the entire edge to the other side of the house," Ron commented as the two of them slowly and surely walked towards the corner of the roof.

It happened so fast that Harry wasn't sure what exactly what had just happened, but he had a pretty good idea. They had just been passing a window when the glass had exploded outwards, showering him with fragments, and Ron had disappeared in a big grey blur. There was a sickening crack a second later and a stunned Harry merely turned and looked over the edge of the roof. Both Ron and the werewolf that had torn out of the window at him were on the ground in a pile of jagged broken glass and wood. The werewolf was whimpering in pain and struggling to get off its back, but could only seem to move its front legs. Harry understood at once that the wolf's spine had been snapped during the fall.

Thankfully Ron seemed able to move and get into a sitting position just fine, but when he grumbled and tried to stand up he screamed in pain and collapsed back to the ground. "The… bloody same leg," he spat while grinding his teeth against the pain.

Harry quickly realized that Ron's broken leg was the least of his worries when he saw a very familiar werewolf slinking towards him in the shadows. The werewolf was acting quite unlike the others Harry he fought tonight and it also had blood all around its mouth. _He's on Wolfsbane so he can… Merlin that's sick_, Harry gasped instantly. _Just so he can keep his head to infect as many people as possible…_ That was also one of Harry's least worries as Fenrir Greyback stalked happily towards Ron who hadn't seen the werewolf yet.

To be continued


	15. The Lion, The Witch, and The Airport

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 15 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Jane wrote the summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching. We've determined that this is bugging me on AIM when I'm slacking off while wearing skimpy clothing (not that this has anything to do with the actual definition of 'wench').

**A/N** - I never forget anything or anyone. If you think I've left something out or noticed that so and so isn't around there's a really good chance you'll find out sometime soon. I don't have plot holes and even if I did Chris wouldn't miss them.

Also, Chapter 13 is now named "Lonely, but not Loony". Chris didn't like my attempted chapter naming while he was running from hurricane Wilma.

Also #2, Quest of Light is now classified as Action/Adventure/Angst, rather than Suspense. I think it is pretty clear to everyone reading it that there is a lot more angst than suspense.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 15**

**The Lion, The Witch, and The Airport**

_"I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on." - Jean Kerr_

_That was also one of Harry's least worries as Fenrir Greyback stalked happily towards Ron who hadn't seen the werewolf yet._

While Ron was gritting his teeth due to the pain of his broken leg, Greyback continued to prowl forwards. The blood dripping from the werewolf's chin was indication enough that he had caught up to someone that evening. While Harry wasn't sure who that unlucky victim was, he was determined not to allow Greyback to turn Ron into the latest one.

"_Accio Ron_!" Harry called and let a smirk play across his face. Greyback was wide-eyed in rage as Ron was lifted up to where was standing and out of his reach. "Can't fly?" Harry spat with a very Draco Malfoyish tone. Greyback merely let his long tongue crawl out of his mouth and lap up some of the trickling blood on his chin. Turning, Greyback bounded around the side of the house and disappeared into the night.

A groan brought Harry back to paying attention to his friend instead of taunting Greyback. Ron was looking quite pale and had both his hands wrapped around the break in his leg to keep up the pressure.

"Go back to the Beacon," Harry told him. Ron immediately looked up and frowned. "Oh give it up, Ron. You can't stand and you're in a lot of pain." Ron closed his mouth and frowned.

"Fine. I see the light." With a spiraling motion that looked like a stream of red flowing into a void, Ron vanished into the night. Harry sighed and was thankful that Ron left without an argument, but perhaps the considerable pain had made him 'see the light' in Harry's order. Being very careful now, Harry continued to edge along the back of the Sawyer's manor. There were very few howls now, however Greyback was still around somewhere and able to plan an attack due to Wolfsbane.

Harry crept around the corner of the house and saw where Mr. Sawyer had taken the Meyers. Attached to the east side of the manor was a two car garage that Harry hadn't seen when he entered the courtyard. There seemed to be a second, albeit smaller and more camouflaged in a long hedge that ran across the length of the eastern wall, iron bar gate. There was a road leading from the front of the garage to the side gate that appeared to be gravel, though it was hard to tell with only the moonlight to aid his vision.

He dropped down two meters and landed with a weird vibrating thud on the roof of the garage. It was flat, so Harry quickly darted towards the center where there appeared to be a giant sky window. One of the panels was shattered and there was a dim flickering glow of a candle. There were voices coming from below and Harry could see both of the Meyers, Mrs. Meyer holding her child against her chest, sitting in the back seat of what looked like an expensive sedan that Uncle Vernon would have driven to impress the neighbors. Both were pale and shaking in fright. Harry didn't blame them in the slightest.

"I'll be right there," Mr. Sawyer tried to reassure the muggles in his car. The large man headed towards the garage door and was about to pull it open. Harry sprang into action and jumped down into the garage. He knew it was a mistake as soon as he landed in a squatting position and the shock caused his ankles to burn. He winced and bit his lower lip until the shooting pain died down. There was a loud scream as Mrs. Meyers glanced out the window and saw Harry swooping down from above.

"Quiet!" bellowed Mr. Sawyer as he spun around in anger. He glared at Harry. "For…" he tried to calm himself down before speaking again, though his eyes were still flashing dangerously. "Now they'll know where we are. Werewolves have good hearing."

Harry glared straight back as best he could while trying to not wince at the pain shooting through his ankles. He hobbled closer to Harold Sawyer and the large garage door handle the man was about to pull up on to open the door. "Don't open that!" he exclaimed, fighting the pain. "Greyback… he went over this way-"

"Well he wouldn't have if you hadn't scared Mrs. Meyers half to death you… you complete idiot!" Harold's face was contorting in anger and his eyes were starring daggers straight into Harry's.

Harry shook his head angrily. "Fenrir Greyback has taken Wolfsbane. He knows what is going on and can think clearly. That means he can plan and react to what we're doing. He headed over this way after I saved Ron from him. He knows we're here and he's just waiting for you to open this door." He let that sink in. "Look, this ring on my finger-" he thrust it up in front of Mr. Sawyer's face, "- is a Portkey that can be activated whenever by a certain vocal command. We can all be transported straight to my house and go from there."

"In case you're wondering, I don't _trust_ you. I don't care if you're bloody Harry Potter or not. So far you've brought nothing but trouble for my family." As if to make Mr. Sawyer's statement hit harder, there was a click as one of the car doors opened.

"M-m-my wife and I are going with Harold," Mr. Meyers stuttered from behind the protection of the open car door.

Mr. Sawyer nodded and reached for the door handle, grasping it with his strong hands. He was about to pull it upwards when Harry dove a few feet forward and used both his hands to press downwards and keep the garage door closed.

"Stop! I'm telling you, Greyback is right outside! What don't you bloody well understand?" Harry restrained himself and tried to keep his voice no greater than a whisper, but he knew it was a lost cause.

With a swipe of his free hand, Mr. Sawyer simply batted away Harry and nearly caused the younger boy to lose his balance. "I've had it with your ideas, Potter."

"Wait! At least let's do it the _correct_ way," Harry replied, somewhat desperate now.

The large man raised an eyebrow. "And what might that be?" he sneered.

Harry gave somewhat of a lopsided grin and explained his idea. Surprisingly, Mr. Sawyer agreed.

A minute later Mr. Sawyer had turned on the car with the Meyers in the backseat and was waiting for Harry to commence his plan. Harry himself was standing just a few feet in front of car with his wand directed at the garage door. He could just picture Greyback waiting in the shadows for the door to open and he knew he had to surprise the werewolf.

Harry nodded to Mr. Sawyer before turning to the door. He raised his wand and cried "_Reducto_!" A section of the metal door blew outwards, leaving a jagged hole in the middle. Unfortunately, it was not as big as Harry had hoped. The sound of screeching tires came from behind him and he dove out of the way.

In an instant there was a howl, as if to answer the squealing tires of Mr. Sawyer's car, and a brownish blur appeared charging through the hole Harry had blown out of the garage door. Harry didn't get to see what happened as a mere second later there were sparks flying as Harold Sawyer drove the car through the hold. The jagged points scraped the side of the car causing a violent screeching noise and shattering the windows or scrapping the paint off of the car depending on where they hit.

The car was through and Harry saw the brownish bulk of a broken werewolf lying where the car had wedged itself through. It seemed that the werewolf had been caught between the car and the jagged edges judging by the red smear along the edges of the fractures. The werewolf also seemed to have had his spine broken in two by the blunt force of the car itself.

As the werewolf shifted back to a middle aged man with brown hair, Harry sprinted past the remains and out into the courtyard. Something was definitely wrong. The car had two flat tires and was having trouble steering. It wasn't a good thing that Greyback, at least Harry assumed it was Greyback just by the way the werewolf was acting, had leapt onto the hood of the vehicle and was attempting to break through the already fractured front windshield.

Mr. Sawyer was doing his best to swerve back and forth to shake Greyback off or at least keep him from steadying enough to take a good swipe at him, but that caused him to veer off course. Instead of heading towards the Iron Gate, the car was veering off into the open courtyard area. Abruptly Mr. Sawyer slammed his foot down on the break pedal, causing Greyback to fly off of the hood and skid across the stones, colliding eventually with the side of the fountain.

Harry sprinted forward the best he could, shoving the pain in his ankles to the back of his mind. "Stay inside!" he bellowed, seeing that Mr. Sawyer was about to open the door. The problem was, Greyback was already on his feet again and heading towards the vehicle. Mr. Sawyer wouldn't have a chance to get out and defend himself in time.

For once Mr. Sawyer listened to him, though Harry figured that this was more in fact due to a large and vicious werewolf charging down his door than Harry's logic. He was still far away, but Harry knew only one thing would entice Greyback more than a free canned meal and unfortunately that was himself. "_Incendio_!" Harry cried, sending a spout of fire towards the charging werewolf, but missing by quite a large margin. However, it did catch the werewolf's attention.

Greyback began to slink towards Harry, looking as smug and confident as ever. Harry watched as Mr. Sawyer drove away slowly towards the main gate, leaving Harry alone with Greyback. When the werewolf was within thirty feet of him, Harry did a circular motion in the air before jabbing it forward at the werewolf. "_Incendia orbis_!" Another spout of fire shot out of Harry's wand, but it widened into a large ring before landing perfectly around Greyback, enclosing him in a ring of fire. Harry smirked, glad that at least one of the spells he had learned since starting the Order of Light had come in handy. Greyback was effectively trapped.

There was one thing that Harry didn't count on. Greyback was still under the influence of the Wolfsbane potion which allowed him to keep his human, if you could call something as sick and twisted as Fenrir Greyback's mind human, even in his wolfish state. This meant that Greyback most certainly was not afraid of fire. The werewolf leapt through the flames and landed on the side closest to Harry. Greyback gave an almost human smirk before taking another few steps towards his prey, though not evening realizing that his tail was on fire.

"You're on fire. Did you know that?" Harry asked off hand while he readied himself in case Greyback lunged forward. He blinked for a moment when he realized that his comment sounded awfully like something Luna would say.

It turned out that Greyback had just realized this fact when his nose wrinkled somewhat at the smell of burning hair and charred flesh. The werewolf ignored Harry entirely and tried to grab a hold of his tail, but ended up comically chasing it around like a dog. Howling in pain and frustration, Greyback bounded off towards the wall just as a bunch of popping was heard near the main gates.

Harry quickly pulled up the hood of his cloak again and kept a firm grip on his wand. When he saw the faint outlines of red robed figures, around ten of them that were in his vision anyways, storming up the front walkway with their wands drawn Harry knew that he was right. Once he had seen the weak defenses and enchantments that the Sawyer house had, Harry knew something was odd about it. It became apparent that Mr. Sawyer was waiting for Death Eaters to attack when there were very few protections on the house in a time of war. Having seen the lack of protection, Harry had immediately dispatched Justin Finch-Fletchley to the Ministry of Magic under the orders to report to Dawlish what was happening.

"Hold up," Harry heard Dawlish call from the lead spot in the Auror formation that was making its way closer to his position. Two of the Aurors separated form the group and began dousing Harry's fire ring, which was still burning magnificently near the fountain, while Dawlish waved the rest forward towards the house.

Bringing his arm up, Harry quickly checked his Order of Light ring. The initials RW were a dull shade of red, which meant that Susan was already working her healing magic on Ron. NL was slightly red, but other than that everyone else was completely fine, or so the ring stated.

"Need any help?" Dawlish asked sarcastically as he came up beside the Gryffindor. Harry was relatively sure that Dawlish knew who the white robed figures were, but he wouldn't trust anyone else with such information, especially Bond, and since Tonks was still suspended from her Auror duties Dawlish was his main contact. Though, he had to admit, it was like that all the Death Eaters probably knew who the white robed figures were, anyways. No one had ever said Voldemort was stupid.

"No, actually," Harry said with a grin as he lowered his hood. "We just finished up. Greyback might still be around and be careful since he's taken Wolfsbane… he's kept his own thoughts."

Dawlish gave a sickened look. "He actually… I heard rumors that he enjoyed the taste of blood and flesh, but I never actually…"

Harry nodded. "He's killed tonight, too. There was blood on his face."

"Alright," Dawlish said, paling slightly. "Your man went back to his headquarters, or so he indicated. Let us handle things from here, Mr. Potter. We'd also appreciate it if you'd give us a heads up sooner than this."

"I would have if I'd have had one myself, but my information came from a last minute informant," Harry said as he readied himself to Apparate.

"It's a goddamn blood bath in there!"

Harry saw a very irate Bond, leading a second team of Aurors, storming towards the fountain where he and Dawlish were standing. Harry groaned. "Perhaps we'll talk later," he mumbled out before waving his wand through the air and Apparated for the Beacon. Though he still felt terrible over his blatant murders of two people, despite the fact that they were werewolves, Harry had to note that the rescue of the Sawyers was a complete success.

* * *

The next few weeks flew by pretty fast for Harry and the rest of the Order of Light. Though Voldemort hadn't done anything, at least that Harry knew about, since the attacks done by Greyback and his werewolves, this only served to make Harry tenser as he waited for more news. He almost preferred having to go and fight for his life daily than to sit around and wait for Voldemort to make his next move. 

Of course Harry and the rest of the Order were looking through records and books on wizarding Germany and the location of Grindelwald's tomb. They had stumbled across a few leads and were just trying to confirm them before they went over to Germany in person. There were more good points to this, like the fact that Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Rachel Ross were all helping Harry and his friends search for information using the Grimmauld Place library. The entire group working on the project also made regular trips to muggle libraries.

Hermione was, by all accounts, making a full recovery. She was able to move now, though in a bit of discomfort. She was also able to speak plainly once more and had no need for any chalkboard. The combination of these things, however, allowed Hermione to be her old self and basically, along with Remus' help, run the entire research project. She spent the longest hours herself curled up somewhere with a stack of books. Harry, along with Ron and everyone else was glad she was feeling better. The only downside, as Susan had predicted a while ago, was that her nerve endings were permanently damaged and her ability to feel was reduced. Still, Hermione did not let this bother her.

It was the second week of October by the time something quite unexpected happened. While Harry was working side by side with Ginny in a crowded library in London pouring over a few volumes of German history books, a large owl swooped in through an open window and landed on his shoulder, much to the dismay of one of the librarians that seemed to be keeping a close watch on him. Harry just assumed that it was odd for her to be seeing a rather obvious couple, since there had been a few instances where the librarian, who was a rather old vulture like lady that reminded Harry of Madam Pince, had caught Harry and Ginny studying each others lips rather than German history.

While Ginny eyed the owl curiously, Harry sighed as he eyed the parchment. It seemed to have been sealed with lipstick stained kiss. He unrolled and it and wondered if Romilda Vane had once again thought she'd be able to get him to like her. It wasn't from Vane, however.

_Dearest Harry Potter,_

_I'm dying to see you again, and I believe I have something that could interest you. I can't put too much in writing, as I'm sure you understand, but should you be interested you could meet me tomorrow evening at my manor. I'm sure you'll have no problem finding it on the Floo Network._

_Yours truly,_

_M. Zabini_

There was a post script as well, though it was simply another kiss.

"Who's it from?" Ginny asked, leaning in to see the message.

"Err…" Harry hesitated and flushed before showing her the letter.

Ginny studied it for a few moments before rolling her eyes. "Trying to make me jealous, Potter?"

Harry shrugged. "I dunno, is it working?"

"Maybe," Ginny replied smugly, before giving him a mock pouting session. "What do you suppose she wants? I mean besides to get in your pants."

It was Harry's turn to shudder and shake his head. "Don't remind me. I think she's hoping I'll become wealthy husband number seven… of course I doubt I'd live too long if I did that." He sighed and flipped over the piece of parchment a few times trying to see if there was any sort of hidden message. "As for what she has, it beats me. I just hope this isn't a waste of time."

"And if it's a trap?" Ginny asked, her eye brows knitting in concern. The look was obviously one she had inherited from Mrs. Weasley.

"I don't think it is… I mean Blaise Zabini is a Death Eater if I ever saw one, but I don't think Mrs. Zabini is working with Voldemort. She could have kept me out of Hogwarts, but instead she supported me." Harry stopped to think a bit more, oblivious to the fact that the vulture-like librarian was making her way towards him. "From what Luna said, it was Frederick Shaw that seemed-"

"I don't care, what 'Luna', said, but you must _be quiet_!" snapped the librarian from directly behind Harry and Ginny, who both jumped having been oblivious to their approach. "I have given you enough warnings! One more and I shall be forced to ask you to leave!"

Ginny spun around and glared. "Alright, you old hag, we were just leaving anyways! Come on, Harry." She reached down and grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him to his feet. Harry and Ginny had thankfully just opened the door to leave when the librarian had spotted the owl sitting on top of one of the bookshelves and began to shriek. Harry sighed and realized that he'd have to send someone else to this particular library tomorrow.

The next evening Harry arrived at the Burrow to use the Floo Network. Harry would have rather used a neutral place like the Leaky Cauldron, but since that didn't exist anymore he had to rely on the Burrow. Mr. Weasley had graciously added his fireplace to the Floo Network for this evening alone. Harry probably would have used Grimmauld Place, but Remus was quick to remind him that the Ministry didn't know that anyone happened to be living in the house. It was best to keep it that way.

As Harry grabbed a handful of Floo powder, he began to grow somewhat nervous. It wasn't that he was scared of a trap, for he was certain he'd be able to get away with his Order of Light ring, but it was more or less that Mrs. Zabini was about to try and seduce him. Not that he was actually going to be seduced by her, but just how sickening it was to him that someone of around forty-five years of age wanted to sleep with him. _Why can't I have a life where no one is interested in me?_

"Zabini Manor," Harry stated clearly as he tossed the Floo powder into the fire place and watching the flames leap up. He stepped in, hoping that Mrs. Zabini's place of residence was, in fact, called Zabini Manor otherwise he could literally end up anywhere.

Harry stumbled out of the fireplace coughing and sputtering as he attempted to brush himself off of all the soot. He grumbled angrily and looked around the room. It was a very regal sort of drawing room that seemed to be decorated in Slytherin green, but with lots and lots of gold mixed in rather than the typical silver that Grimmauld Place had. The furniture definitely was ancient like Harry had come to expect from any wizarding home. It seemed to him that any wizarding family couldn't live without furniture from the 1800s.

"Scourgify," came the voice that Harry was somewhat dreading.

Instantly all the soot that Harry was coughing over vanished and his robes were free of dirt, leaving him perfectly neat as if he had just stepped out of the dry cleaners.

"There are such spells designed to make life easier, Harry," Mrs. Zabini said, giving him a warm, although Harry thought that it was rather disturbing, smile from the doorway which led down a hall, as best as Harry could tell. She was wearing a rather provocative dress that Harry wished she'd donate to Ginny rather than wear herself. It was strapless and showed quite a bit of her chest, meaning that it was something that Professor McGonagall would complain about seeing at any sort of dance, like the Yule Ball. It was very low cut as well, and Harry was rather impressed at Mrs. Zabini's figure, given how old she was. The dress was the same color as Harry's dress robes, being a dark forest green. She made her way from the doorway to one of the ancient couches and sat down near the edge. "Well, don't just stand there. I wouldn't be taken for such a _gracious_ host if you didn't sit down," she seemed to give her lower lip a little lick with her tongue when she said the word gracious before patting down the spot beside her.

Harry, taking a somewhat neutral position in regards to his host's wishes and his own discomfort, sat down at the farthest possible place away from her on the same couch. "Thank you, Mrs. Zabini," he said with a forced smile. He hoped that his discomfort wasn't easily noticeable. "I must say I'm kind of unsure why you asked me here. You did say you had something that you couldn't talk about it in the letter…" he trailed off, eyeing the older woman curiously. She looked as if she was going to dive across the length of the couch and tackle him.

She scoffed at Harry's remark. "Please, I've told you to call me Mireia. Mrs. Zabini sounds far too formal."

Harry could have sworn that she was about to add something along the lines of 'for good friends like us', but she didn't. "Alright, Mireia. If you don't mind me being blunt, why am I here?"

"Is it wrong to invite such well known people into my house? Many other older families do it. I find you intriguing, Harry. We both are rather famous," she leaned towards him just enough so that Harry had a decent view of her cleavage.

After his eyes lingered on Mireia Zabini's chest for a few moments and he mentally chided himself, Harry shrugged and nodded. "I do see your point." He had heard all about her amazing tale of marrying the rich and famous and then having them die, oddly enough, within a few months from Blaise Zabini in Professor Slughorn's Slug Club last year and didn't need to hear it again. He sincerely hoped that swapping famous tales wasn't the only thing on Mrs. Zabini's mind. _Of course, giving the way she's acting right now I definitely suppose talking is out of the question_, he thought nervously. "I heard about your circumstances from your son during my last year at Hogwarts. We were both part of Professor Slughorn's favorites group."

At the mention of her son, Mrs. Zabini flinched every so slightly and leaned back acting definitely more subdued. "Yes, I imagine you have." She took a deep breath and looked back into Harry's eyes, giving him another of her warm smiles.

Even though he fiercely was against thinking of Mrs. Zabini in the sort of manner that she was hoping, Harry had to admit that her eyes were quite stunning, and combined with her clothing, general attitude and seductive voice, which caused his mind to slip into a certain direction. _Ginny. Think of Ginny._ However, all this accomplished was exchanging Mrs. Zabini for Ginny, but leaving the same dress and positions on the sofa. Naturally this didn't help at all. "Is there something wrong?" he asked, somewhat nervously as he tried to look away from the woman's captivating stare.

"Wrong?" Mrs. Zabini said with a confident smile. She knew she was getting to him now. "Let's not deny ourselves any longer." She stated it so seriously that Harry almost thought she was joking, but it quickly became apparent that she wasn't once she began to slide down towards him.

"Deny ourselves… what?" Harry asked as he pressed himself into the arm of the couch, but finding that it wouldn't give him anymore room.

Mrs. Zabini slid up beside the Gryffindor before speaking. "Our mutual attraction," she hissed in his ear.

_Our mutual WHAT?_ Harry jerked his head away. "I'm not sure what you're thinking, but-"

"You can't tell me you're not captivated by me, Harry, because everyone is. You aren't like other men though," she said, almost pleading. "You're too nervous to say it."

_And let me guess… you sense fear?_ "Uhhh… I suppose," he muttered, before thinking about what he just agreed to. "No! No, I'm already in a relationship. I'm flattered though." _I think_, he added, mentally rolling his eyes.

It quickly became apparent that Mrs. Zabini wasn't one to take no for an answer. She placed a hand on Harry's leg which caused him to tense up. "Certainly I can be more worthwhile than any of your school girl fans," she said, pressing her advantage at Harry's moment of weakness.

"Look," Harry said, grabbing the woman's wrist and pulling her hand off of his thigh forcefully. "I'm-" he stopped when he noticed that Mrs. Zabini's personality had changed entirely. She seemed weak, vulnerable and tired. Her hand was shaking in his. "Mrs… err, Mireia, are you ok?"

"Harry… Nar… she-" Mrs. Zabini sputtered, though it seemed that she was incapable of saying what she wanted to as her jaw opened and closed many times. "Trouble… she wants…"

"She? Who? Nar… who on earth is that?" Harry sputtered a reply, trying to understand what was making Mrs. Zabini act this way.

"Mal…foy… Nar…" she stopped again and looked back over her shoulder towards the hallway where she first appeared. "GO!"

"What? Narcissa _Malfoy_? What does she want?" Harry asked, ignoring her last comment in a rush to get the information out of her.

"Go!" Mrs. Zabini exclaimed loudly again. This time there was the clear sound of footsteps coming down the hallway. At least two people, perhaps three, Harry realized. Unfortunately there was a good chance this was Blaise Zabini and some of his friends.

Harry nodded and got up, finally releasing his grip of Mrs. Zabini's wrist. He hadn't even realized he'd be holding it the entire time. Almost instantly, Mrs. Zabini regained some of her former poise and seductive nature, though fear was still evident in her eyes. She urged him on towards the fire place. Grabbing another handful of Floo powder, Harry returned to the Burrow just as Blaise Zabini entered the drawing room.

* * *

Blaise Zabini had just returned from yet another pointless search for Narcissa Malfoy. It seemed that the people giving him tips as to her whereabouts were either entirely stupid or had been obliviated. Of course it had to be the former, but they were quickly punished for their stupidity from his comrade. Blaise knew he should have been relieved that the Dark Lord hadn't given him anything too serious to do, yet anyways, but the longer it took the less patience the Dark Lord had. He didn't know why the Dark Lord wanted Narcissa Malfoy, since after all Dumbledore was dead even if it was by Snape's hand instead of Draco's, but no one questioned the Dark Lord, well, questioned and lived to tell about it. 

When Blaise had first entered his home via Apparation, as all Zabini family members could enter the Manor regardless of Anti-Apparation wards, with his companion holding on to his arm to get her through the wards as well, he didn't quite believe what he was hearing. His own mother was talking in quite a loud and frantic voice about Narcissa Malfoy.

It was then that he strode into the drawing room where his mother was seated, dressed like a common whore as usual, on the couch as a man in typical black robes with black hair stepped into the fireplace and vanished. As Blaise looked over his mother's somewhat trembling form while she tried to straighten her dress and sit with poise, he frowned. It seemed as if his mother was actual fighting the curse he had placed on her. That was impossible, though, Blaise knew, since the curse was very powerful and his mother certainly didn't have the qualities to break out of it. Still, the evidence was irrefutable. His mother could have been spilling secrets about his actions to whoever that was. As his mother shifted her weight again, trying to act regal, as well as innocent, Blaise shuddered after getting a glimpse of a pair of acid green panties. It surprised him, however, that they were still on. Many times Blaise, during the summers while he wasn't away at Hogwarts, had walked in on his mother with a male guest.

Those thoughts would have to wait, since clearly his mother knew about Narcissa Malfoy and had resisted all efforts at Legilimency. It wasn't a skill that Blaise was particularly gifted at, but others in the Dark Lord's service had tried as well and found nothing. He walked over to his mother in his most intimidating form. He had long since learned that he could control his mother with fear. "Well, mother, who was that?" he asked while fixing her with a glare.

Mireia Zabini flinched and curled up into the fetal position on the corner of the couch. "Nothing, Blaise."

"Oh? Then who was that just leaving?" Blaise said, gesturing extravagantly past his guest and towards the fire place where the flames were still dancing around.

"Just a friend, Blaise. I'm allowed to have friends!" She sounded quite desperate.

It was sad, Blaise thought. His mother was pleading now and trying to sound as if she was in control. He did admire his mother's spirit at times, but this wasn't the right situation for trying to get some control back in her life, or whatever you'd call her past few months. "We'll forget I saw him if you tell me what you know about Narcissa Malfoy."

Blaise noted the flicker of fear in his mother's crystal blue eyes. That proved that he wasn't just hearing things and his mother did in fact know something about the missing Malfoy the Dark Lord wanted so much. "Don't try to act like that curse is getting in the way. You were able to talk to whomever," he said acidly, his eyes boring into his mother's.

"I didn't… no… nothing!" Mrs. Zabini sputtered back weakly.

Sighing, Blaise Zabini turned to his accomplice, who was studying the broken woman on the couch. He looked back at his mother. "Mother, I really hate to have to do this to you, but allow me to introduce you to someone who's been working with me quite a lot lately."

Blaise saw his accomplice move towards his mother and draw her wand with a wicked grin on her face. "This is Bellatrix Lestrange, once a Black just like Narcissa. She's worried about her dear younger sister, like she was with her older sister many years back." Blaise watched his mother's mouth draw into a thin line. Pretty much everyone who was important knew that Bellatrix had confronted her oldest sister, Andromeda, about her choice of husbands before she was sent to Azkaban for torturing the Longbottoms. He sighed once more and shook his head sadly. "Since you dislike other people sticking their noses in and disrupting family affairs, which I rather expect from all those poor men you've murdered for money-" he stopped when his mother scowled at him. "Oh, you remember, don't you? The ones you murdered, like _my father_." Blaise smiled when his mother flinched and curled back up to get away from Blaise and Bellatrix.

"Having said that, don't you think it is wrong for you to keep between two sisters that clearly have something to talk about?" Blaise continued, his tone entirely condescending and mocking. He didn't exactly want to put his mother at the mercy of Bellatrix Lestrange, few people would he knew, but perhaps she would be able to get through to his mother where he couldn't. "Don't tell me you disagree." With that, he turned and headed to his bedroom. Within seconds after he walked out of the room the sound of his mother's screams echoed through the halls.

* * *

Harry's meeting with Mrs. Zabini was yet another heavy weight on his shoulders. More specifically, whatever Narcissa Malfoy wanted, Harry had to assume that it involved him. Then, on top of it all, Mrs. Zabini was clearly under the effects of a curse, though it definitely wasn't Imperius. Oddly enough she seemed to snap out of it, at least to some degree, when she made physical contact with Harry. 

As the weeks passed and the group continued their research on Germany as well as Grindelwald, they were drawing to one conclusion. They were certain that Grindelwald's tomb was near a small town by the name of Warheim, which was far in the northern reaches of the country. Warheim was scarcely populated, and it was said by some of the inhabitants of the area that a nearby mountain and surrounding forest contained dark magic. This came from muggles however, but it was just the sort of thing that raised Harry's eyebrows. This was confirmed by the German wizarding records that statement Grindelwald was born in the same area, or at least they assumed.

This came with another problem. How exactly were the Order of Light, plus Remus, Tonks and Ross, who all demanded to go with Harry, supposed to travel to Germany? Such as it was they couldn't take a magical method of transportation without alerting the British Ministry. Harry highly doubted that Scrimgeour would be pleased that he and a bunch of his friends plus some Order of the Phoenix members were heading to Germany on a mission that they couldn't tell him about. Since the distances were too great to Apparate or get to by Portkey, which mean of course the Order of Light rings were useless in emergency, long distance transportation was handled by governments. While Harry didn't know what exactly the transportation was, Remus assured him sarcastically that it was quite 'fun'. This, of course, left muggle transportation at the moment was their most viable option.

The idea of muggle transportation wasn't without its own complications. For international trips officials required passports and other identification, such as birth certificates. Of course in the wizarding world, such things were unheard of. The second was problem was that even if they obtained passports and other required documents; the state of emergency declared in England had done exactly what it should have done. Heightened security measures made it increasingly difficult to enter and exit the country.

They would have to try, of course, and that meant obtaining passports from Gringotts. Remus had informed Harry and the others that, for a small fee of course, the goblins would be happy to produce valid documents that would allow them to travel out of the country via the regular muggle methods.

It was decided that on the last week of October they'd have to take the Gringotts route for their identification. A day before their trip to Gringotts, Moody had reappeared after a month long absence. While no one wanted to admit it, many people, Harry included, were beginning to think the worst. As it turned out, the grizzled ex-Auror had been sent with an investigation team up to the north. They were assigned to investigating the disappearances, but came home empty handed. Moody had stressed that he kept the team there longer trying to find the answer, but it clearly seemed that they disappeared off of the face of the planet.

This was disheartening news, but luckily Gringotts managed to procure the required documents without any difficulty. It cost quite a lot, but compared to the massive stacks of golden galleons in Harry's vaults it was mere pocket change. While he was at Gringotts, Harry also exchanged a considerable sum of his galleons for Pounds Sterling and Deutsche Marks. After mumbling about the outrageous exchange rates, Harry and Remus headed into London to book airline tickets.

Although it cost an arm and a leg, Harry and Remus managed to secure seats on a flight departing at 6 am, much to Harry's disappointment, on October the 30th. This gave them three days to prepare for their trip and make arrangements. And, naturally, gave certain people that Harry would never name that many days to pack.

* * *

Harry yawned as his alarm spell woke him up at 3:45 am. He groped around to find his light, but only managed to miss his swipe and tumble out of bed and onto the hard floor. He groaned, sat up, turned on his light and began to search for the clothes he had laid out the night before. 

After getting dressed, Harry proceeded downstairs to the hall where everyone else was assembling. Nearly everyone was mumbling about how absurd it was that they needed to be at the airport so early. There were only two people present at the Beacon that weren't flying to Germany, but both of them were awake anyways. However, unlike everyone else, Susan and Sarah had the luxury of being able to go back to bed shortly after everyone left.

"Now remember," Harry said, addressing Susan more so than Sarah. "Tonks, Remus, Ross and Moody are all going with us. If there's an emergency the Weasleys are still here and there's still McGonagall at Hogwarts." He pushed the thoughts about McGonagall and Grindelwald from his mind. Professor McGonagall had always been someone Harry could trust.

Susan yawned and nodded while she tried to wipe the drowsiness from her eyes. "You've told me many times already, Harry. We'll be fine. After all you should only be gone a few days at max, right?"

"That's the plan, anyways," Harry sighed. He didn't honestly have any idea how long this was going to take.

There was a loud thud behind Harry which caused him to turn around in time to see Hermione drop a bunch of suitcases onto the ground.

"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Ron loudly. "What's in those things?"

"Books," Hermione answered simply.

"Books? Did you pack the entire library?" Ron asked, staring at her with his mouth open slightly in surprise.

Hermione scowled at him. "So what if I did? We might need them. Who knows what we're going to need to get the Horcrux from that tomb. Its not a vacation, you realize!"

"But-"

"Oh shut up, both of you," Ginny snapped as she entered the hall carrying a flowery duffle bag. She yawned and scowled at them. Ginny was usually grumpy in the mornings.

Ginny wasn't the only one who looked grumpy and tired. In fact, it was pretty apparent that Hermione and Ron were the only two that didn't look tired. Well, and Luna, but since she looked the same as she always did it was hard to tell.

After Harry said his good-bye to Sarah, the group headed out down the front walk where they met Remus, who looked just as tired, Moody, who was as alert as ever, and finally Tonks and Ross who, expectedly, were excited about the trip and didn't look tired at all. Harry began to wonder whether or not Tonks and Ross could possibly ever not have energy.

"Packed the entire library I see," Remus said, stifling a yawn as he glanced at the stack of suitcases floating at Hermione's wand point.

Hermione scowled and him and pouted. "Why does everyone keep making fun of me?"

Ginny wisely hit Ron on the shoulder and stopped her brother mid thought before he incurred Hermione's wrath by telling her bluntly why it was that everyone was commenting on it.

After Hermione had shrunk down six of her seven suitcases and packed them in the last suitcase, the entire group Apparated to Diagon Alley. From there they'd take taxis to the airport.

Somehow Harry got stuck traveling with Tonks and Ross, who took the opportunity to tell him everything there was to know about airports and muggle travel. "And how do you know, exactly," Harry said, still trying to get himself to stop yawning continually.

Tonks grinned, "I used to go on vacation, you know. Not everyone stays at home the entire time."

"Wait, wait," Ross interrupted. "Do you mean you've never been out of the country?" she asked Harry incredulously.

Tonks rolled her eyes and nodded. "Indeed our savior here hasn't experienced the vast pleasures of the world."

Harry's cheeks burned and he knew he was going crimson again. This seemed to be a common occurrence whenever he was around Tonks, but it was only made worse when Ross was around as well. Naturally, the two seemed to be inseparable.

"Yes, the beaches of Spain were quite good. We should go back sometime," Ross agreed eagerly.

Harry frowned slightly. Perhaps he had misjudged them. It was then that Tonks leaned over and whispered into his ear.

"Because they're nude beaches." After this, both Tonks and Ross broke out into a fit of school girl like giggles. Harry's head sank down into his hands as he tried to sink into a dark hole and never return.

From the front seat beside the driver of the taxi, Remus cleared his throat loudly. Through the rear-view mirror Harry could see that the driver was giving them all really odd looks and trying to size them up. Harry sighed and hoped the ride would end soon. However, he was entirely wrong if he thought that the rest of the ride would go any smoother.

Everything went fine for a while. Harry and many others had checked themselves in as well as their luggage and received their boarding passes. They were standing off to the side and telling Ron and Ginny about some of the common things you would find in an airport. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw something that he knew would be trouble.

The airline attendant had just finished handing Luna her boarding pass and had gone to pick up her simple back pack that she was using for the trip. However, much to the attendant's surprise, she couldn't lift the bag at all. She leaned over the counter. "Miss, what have you got in here? There's a weight restriction-"

Luna cut her off. "Mostly it's bait for rare animals. I like rare animals."

Perhaps the dreamy tone caught her off guard, but the airline employee answered immediately. "Like what?" It was here that Harry began moving quickly towards the counter.

"Oh, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, Nargles, Gillyfrogs… do you know if they're found in Germany? That's where we're going," Luna answered honestly as she launched excitedly into her favorite topic.

"What?" the woman blurted out.

Harry seized Luna's upper arm and dragged her back a few paces before the Ravenclaw girl had a chance to reply again. "You didn't really pack Snorkack bait, did you?" Harry hissed in a whisper as his eyes darted back to the counter where the woman was still staring at them oddly.

"Of course. One never knows when they'll find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack and then realize they're out of bait…" Luna reminded him while giving him a look that suggested he was insane for suggesting she shouldn't have packed it.

Letting out a deep sigh, Harry left Luna standing there and went back up to the counter. "My friend didn't get much sleep last night and she gets like this when she's tired. We'll just lighten this a bit." He let his wand slip from its holster down his sleeve and gave a slight wave as he reached for Luna's backpack. He pretended it weighed a lot while he effortlessly brought it back to where Luna was standing. They both pretended to re-arrange some items before bringing it back to the counter and handing it to the employee with the charm still on. It didn't make the backpack totally weightless, but it was enough to act as if they had taken some items out. Harry breathed a sigh of relief when the woman at the counter merely shrugged and checked the backpack without incident.

They all managed to get their boarding passes without too much more difficulty, other than Ron commenting about how amazing it was that muggles could build such interesting places without magic. Harry was dreading this next area, however. Airport security, Harry was sure, would be a bad thing for some of his companions. He decided to go through first to show everyone how to act.

Harry walked through the metal detector after emptying his pockets of loose change. However, the detector still went off which caused many of the members of his group to jump up warily. One of the security personnel ran a manual hand scanned around his body, eventually coming to rest on his around his waist.

"The belt buckle," the guard said and Harry felt silly. _Of course_.

As Harry removed the belt, he absentmindedly glanced over his shoulder and then flushed. Hermione, it seemed, had the good grace to turn away in case his pants actually dropped, which was highly unlikely. Ginny eventually turned away, reluctantly. Tonks and Ross did no such thing and Luna only turned because Hermione grabbed her wrist and spun her around. Flushing furiously, Harry handed the belt to the nearest security personnel to scan over.

"What's that?" one of the guards asked. He pointed to the top of Harry's wand which was sticking out of his jeans' pocket. Harry had suggested that the group not wear their holsters while on the plane, but simply back them instead. Somehow Harry doubted that a group of teenagers with holsters on their upper arms would be a good thing.

"Err," Harry said as the guard grabbed the tip of his wand and pulled it out of his pocket. "Rare wood, actually," he replied sheepishly, not really caring how stupid it sounded. The guard eyed him suspiciously. "We're from an environmental class, actually. This is a field trip with Professor Lupin," explained Harry, pointing towards Remus, who in turn gave a small wave to the guard. "There's some sort of convention and environmentalist rally in Germany that we've been given permission to go to." _I suppose that sounds plausible and it would explain why we all have wands._

The guard shrugged and nodded. To him it looked like some sort of foolish magical wand, but if he even suggested that out loud or to his co-workers he'd be laughed at so he kept the observation to himself. "Interesting group," he muttered as the second guard gave Harry his belt back.

"Can I see your wood too?" Tonks asked as, coming up silently behind Harry as he did up his belt. This caused Harry to flush once again.

"Maybe later," he hissed back, trying to fight the color in his face.

"He's learning!" Ross oooh'd from behind him, having come through security with no problems as well.

"Learning?" Harry asked, not really sure if he wanted to know or not.

Ross sighed as if Harry had just failed some sort of test. "To say what you're actually thinking, of course." Harry blinked for a moment and then realized she was entirely serious.

"I wasn't actually thinking that!" Harry exclaimed quickly, his face reddening brightly.

"Suuuuuure you weren't," Tonks said with a wink before latching herself on to Remus' arm and thoroughly embarrassing him front of the security guards.

There wasn't too much trouble for Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville or Justin, but the three of them that had grown up solely in the wizarding world showed a little too much interesting in the technology being displayed which caused some of the guards to eye them suspiciously.

Then, Luna approached and began to empty her pockets as instructed. From onion stalks to small charms and finally a pile of sand, everything that Luna had pulled out of her pockets had made every muggle in there area stare at her oddly. The fact that Harry didn't find this odd anymore was surely a sign that Luna's oddness was wearing off on them all, except for Hermione who scoffed as Luna passed through the metal detector and began to refill her pockets with whatever she had in there normally.

Then the next person stepped through metal detector and set it off wildly. However, it was likely that the metal detector set Mad-Eye Moody off more than the other way around. Harry froze and could tell that Moody was itching to draw his wand just in case there were unforeseen forces about to attack him. _He wouldn't… he would_. There wasn't anything Harry could to stop him, though.

Moody had lifted off his bowler and let his eye whirl around before stopping directly in the fact of the young security officer that had stepped forward and asked him to come off to the side. The officer recoiled badly as Moody's magical eye continued to stare him down.

"Uh… sir… you'll have to remove anything metal you have on you-" the young man gulped as Moody reached up and plucked the eye from its socket. He dropped it in the tray provided before moving to his overcoat's first pocket and withdrew a sneakescope. Five minutes later when all of Moody's dark detectors, including a nice collection of foe glasses, had been placed in the tray, the ex-Auror hobbled without his fake leg through the metal detector one final time. No alarm sounded and the security personnel were finally satisfied.

After popping his eye back in place, it spun around at a dizzying pace before stopping and staring directly at the first young guard again. Moody took a quick step forward which caused the guard to flinch backwards. "CONSTANT VILIGANCE!" he bellowed while Harry just tried to blend in with the walls.

"Professor Moody is our Headmaster, you see. He's quite paranoid, especially given the fact that this is the first international field trip ever," Hermione piped in quickly, covering Harry's momentary lack of excuses. Luckily the security personnel were far too disturbed by their entire group, which they found harmless if quite annoying and just waved them all on through.

The group had a long wait before boarding as was typical of muggle airports. The kids decided to spend the time in a small arcade. Ron and Ginny were quite amazed by all the video games. Harry himself was rather interested in trying many of them that he had seen Dudley play on his computer and video game machines back in Privet Drive, but never got a chance to try himself.

"What's _this_?" Ron asked, staring in awe at a common pinball machine.

"Pinball," Justin said stepping right up and depositing a coin. Ron watched, mesmerized by the little taps Justin made to the buttons and controlled the flippers to keep his ball alive. After fifteen minutes it became apparent that Justin was at the very least, a pinball master. He let Ron takeover his game, which then promptly ended. Ron tried to play pinball for the next ten minutes before giving up entirely and claiming that it was purely luck and Justin had been using magic all along.

Harry wandered around the arcade until he found Neville and Ginny playing a fighting game that he had seen Dudley and Piers play many times before. Street Fighter, he believed it was called. While Neville and Ginny were no where near as good as Dudley was, but he was impressed that they had actually been able to start the game on their own.

"This is amazing, Harry! Look!" Neville said, trying to point towards the screen as he played with the joystick and kept his character from being hit by Ginny's. "I wish _I_ could shoot fireballs like that."

Neville's comment was overheard by two attractive girls about Harry's age as they walked past out of the arcade. They laughed cruelly. "What a loser," one of them remarked loud enough so that everyone would overhear.

"And just why do you two scarlet women think you're better than him?" Ginny exclaimed loudly, turning around to face them. The two girls halted and turned back.

"Scarlet women?" the second one asked, blinking. "What kind of stupid term is that? This isn't red, this is _blue_," he sniggered while indicating her clothing.

The first one rolled her eyes. "She was calling us _whores_, Janice." She turned back to Ginny. "I suppose anyone that doesn't wear clothes similar to hers and actually has a chance of getting laid _would _be a whore."

Ginny's cheeks and ears turned a bright red, which was a Weasley sign of anger and embarrassment. She looked down at her old, faded, and patched jeans and her faded shirt before coming up to face them. Harry quickly side stepped behind Ginny and slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into a hug. He rested his head on the top of hers and eyed the two other girls harshly. "Just ignore them. They're jealous and all."

Janice's eyes opened wide, but it was the other girl that spoke. "Why are _you_ with her? You could do so much better…" she threw her hair over her shoulder and left with the sound of her high heels clicking along the floor. When the two girls were out of sight, Harry tickled Ginny's sides and let her spin around in her arms. "Except, I don't want to do better," he joked anyways and got poked in the ribs for his effort.

"What's going on? I thought I heard my dear little sister screaming something about scarlet women-" Ron stopped when he saw Harry and Ginny together. He immediately turned around, but not before Harry saw his ears reddening. Harry and Ginny broke apart instantly. They knew it made Ron quite uncomfortable to see them together, though in quite a surprising bit of maturity, Ron was determined to stay out of the relationship altogether.

"Someone decided to interrupt Ginny and I from playing this great game," Neville explained quickly as Ginny took her place at the controls. "You should see these fireballs!"

"Wow, and Chun-Li looks so… so-"

"So _what_, Roland?" Hermione asked. Everyone but Ginny jumped at the sound of her voice.

"Constant Vigilance," Ginny said quietly so that only Harry could hear her.

Ron had quickly spun around on the spot, his face red, but Hermione took another step forward and poked a finger in his chest. "You, come with me." Ron paled slightly, but followed Hermione out of the arcade.

"Poor Ron," Harry remarked solemnly as he and Neville gave a silent prayer that they'd see him again alive.

"Poor Ron?" Ginny spat while rolling her eyes. "Hermione was just trying to get him alone for a bit of time." Both Harry's and Neville's eyes went wide with implications.

"How come you don't do that with me?" Harry asked with a mock sadness.

Ginny grinned. "Hold that thought until after you see how Tonks did the hotel reservations."

About forty-five minutes later the group began to board the plane for the final leg of their voyage to Germany. Harry was just thankful that he'd be able to relax rather than keeping an eye on everyone to make sure they didn't do anything blatantly unnatural. Somehow, he felt like he was babysitting a bunch of kids, or infants in the case of Tonks and Ross. Remus on the other hand seemed to be enjoying watching Harry struggle.

Harry checked his ticket as he headed down the thin aisle and eventually found his seat to be in the middle of the row of three seats. He grumbled, wondering who would be sitting around him.

"Window seat!" exclaimed someone excitedly and before Harry knew what was happening, Tonks had slipped past him and thrown herself into the window seat. Rolling his eyes, Harry sat down beside her in the middle seat and looked out the window on the runway.

"Well isn't this cozy," Ross said as she sat down in the seat on Harry's left. "If I didn't know better I'd say you planned it this way."

"You don't know better. I bet he _did_ plan it this way, didn't you Harry?" Tonks batted her eyelashes, which had grown to a long length magically, in his face.

The plane took off without any delay and while he was trapped between Tonks and Ross for the duration of the flight, it was still pretty relaxing. Instead of tormenting him the entire time, they took breaks to tell him about the places they had been and some of their old Auror assignments, of course leaving out references to magic.

In the section of three seats in front of Harry sat Ginny, Ron and Hermione. Ron looked like he was asleep which wasn't too surprising since Hermione had basically been giving him a complete history of aviation since they had taken their seats. Ginny had been running up and down the aisle to the restroom and back. Apparently flying didn't exactly agree with her stomach.

In the row of two seats across the aisle from Harry sat Remus and Moody. Remus seemed to fit in perfectly with the muggle crowd as he reclined slightly in his seat reading a book. Moody was seated beside him along the aisle and kept his magical eye revolving continuously to make sure no one was around to attack him with a plastic spoon or whatever else he was scared of at the current moment. It had only been a few minutes earlier when Moody had jumped up shouting with a flight attendant asked if he'd like anything to drink from the drink cart.

Harry reclined in his seat much like Remus and closed his eyes. He had been up awfully early and the situations arising in the airport were somewhat stressful, but they had been expected.

"… of course no one's been able to catch them, but there've been numerous sightings in Sweden. I don't know if I'll ever get there now, but I won't give up."

Turning around in his seat, Harry saw Luna in the row behind him talking amiably with an elderly couple that looks of complete confusion on their faces. Harry figured that there was really no harm done seeing as he knew the couple barely spoke English at all. They were German and simply returning home. Luna didn't seem to mind either as she talked to them for the entire trip.

They arrived with no delays and quickly took some taxis to the hotel which Tonks had booked. She had also booked a guide, who was an old friend of hers and Ross' from one of their vacations. Luckily he was a wizard, which made things a lot easier.

In the lobby of the hotel room, which was quite luxurious, Tonks began to hand out room keys. "Harry, you're with Ginny," she winked and handed him the key. Harry blushed furiously.

"Ehem," Remus began, clearing his throat. "Now we might not be on an actual field trip or anything and I'm not going to argue that this bunch has been anything less than amazingly mature, but…" he sighed.

"Oops. I meant Harry was with Ron. I get the Weasleys mixed up sometime," Tonks said innocently. She continued handing out keys and room assignments. "And I guess that means you're with me, Moony." Remus whistled innocently while Ross tried to stop laughing.

After the group had placed their entire luggage in their rooms, they waited patiently in the lobby for Tonks' friend to arrive. They didn't have long to wait before a young man in his late twenties arrived with his dark hair slicked back with far too much gel. He wore a black leather jacket with dark sunglasses that masked his eyes.

"Nicolaus!" Tonks and Ross both exclaimed and once, running over to meet the man. After exchanging hugs, which Remus felt was a little too close between the man and Tonks, they group quickly explained that they needed him to take them up to Warheim and the surrounding area.

Nicolaus, who Harry honestly didn't think would ever lose his suave attitude and appearance, paled slightly. "Warheim? But… that is the vampire's land. No one dares set foot there."

"Vampires?" Harry asked solemnly.

The man nodded. "Yes, the _Nachtzehrer_ control that area. Sorry," Nicolaus said, realizing he used the German term. "The _Nachtzehrer_ are the Night Wasters. Anyone who enters their forest never comes out alive."

To be continued.


	16. The Vanishing Light

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 16 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M  
**  
Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Jane wrote the summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching. We've determined that this is bugging me on AIM when I'm slacking off while wearing skimpy clothing (not that this has anything to do with the actual definition of 'wench').

**A/N** - Late once again. Dang. University likes to conflict with my writing time.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 16**

**The Vanishing Light**

_"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." - Anne Lamott_

"First werewolves, then Dementors, then werewolves again and now _vampires_," groaned Ron, but Harry was mostly ignoring him. "What could possibly be next?"

Upon learning from their German guide, Nicolaus, that the area they were going to find Grindelwald's tomb in was controlled by a fearsome vampire clan known as the _Nachtzehrer_, Harry had simply sent everyone off for a bit of relaxation while he thought of a plan. Ron and Hermione didn't desert him though as he retired to his hotel room to think. Near instantly, Hermione had dashed to the room she shared with Ginny in search of a book.

"I s'ppose we should have expected this," Harry grumbled in reply. "What Dark Lord wouldn't do this?"

Before Ron could reply, the door creaked up and Hermione entered uneasily, though that was due to the large stack of precariously balanced books she was carrying and trying to fit through the door frame.

"Bloody hell, she _did_ pack the entire library." Ron's incredulous tone made Hermione grimace and her cheeks flush.

Hermione kicked the door closed and then levitated the stack of books to the floor effortlessly. "You could have helped me carry them," she said in an offhand tone as she quickly scooped up the first book and opened it. "I know I saw something in here about various vampire clans and their powers."

Ron sighed and picked up the book nearest to him. "_Dark Creatures of Europe_? We actually _have_ books on these?"

"Apparently," Harry replied gloomily as he grabbed at a solid black bound book. "_Guide to Dark Creatures Volume XX_," he said, blinking a few times in a surprised after reading out the title.

"She really did buy out Flourish and Blotts then. Well, I guess her dream came true afterall," Ron shrugged as he opened up the book in his hand and began flipping through pages.

"You laugh now," Hermoine began, using the tone of voice she normally used when lecturing Harry and Ron at Hogwarts. "But when we find all the information we need to get to Voldemort's Horcrux you'll be praising books."

Ron turned a guffaw into a hacking cough before he nodded in agreement, but Harry caught him rolling his eyes once Hermione had looked back down at the book in her lap.

Harry couldn't help but let a small smile play across his face as he began reading _Guide to Dark Creatures Volume XX_. He had gone to his room to be alone while hoping that everyone else would take the opportunity to explore Berlin and let him brood. That hadn't happened, obviously. Ron had immediately followed Harry to his room and had somehow known that he was going to be looking to strategize. Of course, strategy was clearly Ron's specialty. The only other thing they needed was information. Hermione had caught up with them moments later and suggested looking through some of the several books she brought along with the trip.

The Trio was united once more and their abilities complemented each other quite well. It didn't take long before Hermione triumphantly stated that she had the entry she remembered seeing a while back.

"The _Nachtzehrer_, or Night Wasters," Hermione stated with her eyes flashing back and forth as she read the page faster than both Harry and Ron could ever hope to match. "They're a vampire clan that is rumored to be in northern Germany and control the entire area." She continued reading and then gasped.

"What is it?" Harry asked quickly. He wanted to say that he didn't want to know what was wrong, but he knew that if he didn't go in prepared their journey might be entirely over before finding a single Horcrux. _And then what would Dumbledore think?_

Hermione winced. "They're basically associated with plagues. It isn't really clear whether they actually start them or that it's a coincidence that they appeared to villages suffering from disease."

"Alright. Probable disease warning. We wear bubblehead charms, then?" Harry suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Not all plagues are airborne like that," Hermione said, shaking her head. It could simply be a skin infection or worse-"

"'Mione, can we _please_ not talk like that? We can't keep a bubblehead charm around our entire bodies and if we cover our entire skin it won't be able to breath and we'd be in even more trouble. There are some things we won't be able to prepare for one hundred percent," Ron explained, leaning up against the wall. It was times like these that made Harry do a double take at how much Ron was maturing. Of course, Ron still made typical Ron comments, but not when the situations were serious.

The girl bit her lip and nodded before continuing to read aloud. "The _Nachtzehrer _are also said to have the power to transform themselves into animals. This allows them to infiltrate villages and feed off the population during the nights. If the alarm is sounded, the _Nachtzehrer_ will simply head to a flock of sheep, transform, and stay hidden." Hermione looked up with a worried expression on her face.

"That makes things somewhat difficult," Harry sighed. "The thing is, we don't have to defeat them or anything. We just have to slip by them unnoticed. Vampires sleep during the day, don't they? Couldn't we just slip into the territory, find the tomb and Horcrux before nightfall?"

"Possibly. It says here that the _Nachtzehrer_ sleep with one eye open. It doesn't say why, though," Hermione said, flipping another page in the book.

"Blimey that's creepy," Ron shuddered at the thought. "Couldn't we just ram a stake through their hearts?" he asked as he mimicked smacking a stake with a mallet.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "This isn't the muggle movies, Ron." She glanced over at Harry and tried to keep herself from laughing as Ron gave a bewildered expression.

"Muggle movies have vampires?" the redhead asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yes, and they also have witches and wizards too. They aren't really accurate though," Harry explained. "Werewolves too, I guess. Vampires are said to be killed by sunlight and wooden stakes through their hearts."

"And werewolves by silver," Hermione added thoughtfully. "Of course, when I asked Remus a few summers ago he said that werewolves just have a bad reaction to silver. It doesn't actually kill them, though it will harm them more than any other metal."

"I ruddy well wouldn't want to go up and try and stake a vampire, that has one eye open in its sleep mind you, without knowing its going to work," Harry muttered. "Where did you get that stake thing if you haven't seen any muggle movies, anyways."

Ron frowned. "Charlie told me about some of them. He works with dragons in Romania. Romania is basically the home of vampires."

"What we need is a good staking spell…" Hermione's voice trailed off thoughtfully, causing Harry to glance over and eye her oddly.

"You can't be serious," Harry blurted out.

"I am, but I don't think there is one. I think you're right, Harry. We should just avoid them."

"Yeah, I agree, mate. There's no sense fighting a battle and tiring ourselves out if we don't need to."

Harry nodded. "I guess we should find everyone else and fill them in about this. It's not right to hide any information." Ron and Hermione agreed, closed their books and headed towards the door. Hermione exited first, but Ron hung back once he saw Hermione slip out.

Harry's best friend turned to face him. "You know," he began hesitantly, "sometimes keeping things from people isn't a bad idea."

This somewhat shocked Harry, but the seriousness in Ron's voice kept him from making some sort of sarcastic retort. Instead, he chose to stay silent and simply stare down Ron, hoping that he would elaborate.

Ron didn't really need anymore prompting. "Filling people in on the most gruesome details isn't a great idea. It stops some of them from performing if they feel like the task is overwhelming."

For some reason Harry really didn't like what Ron was going with this, but he answered truthfully anyways. "I can understand that to a degree," he said simply. Ron was being a strategist, pure and simple. "But, that's wrong. Everyone has a right to know what I know."

A small smile appeared on Ron's face along with a general look of victory. "I'm glad you agree. Now, what's wrong? You've been hiding things for months and everyone's stayed out of it. Hermione's really worried, but she won't ask you what's wrong anymore."

Harry winced and realized immediately that he had played directly into Ron's hands. "That's none of your business," he bit back, mentally wincing at how childish it sounded.

The Weasley frowned. "Isn't it? Something's bothering you."

"So what if it is?" Harry snapped, clearly irritated. The war in general was beginning to weigh more and more heavily on his shoulders. Other minor things that he would never share with anyone, such as the information learned in Dumbledore's Pensieve about Professor McGonagall, was also present. Last but not least was the fact that he seemed to be bothered less and less by his ruthlessness and general attitude. He had barely mourned the werewolves, no, _people_, he had killed while rescuing the Sawyers. This scared him. He knew he'd never share that particular information with anyone because the last thing he needed was everyone believing that he was on the verge of following in Voldemort's footsteps. "You have secrets too. You don't tell me absolutely everything."

"Did I say I didn't? Did I say you had to tell me everything?" Ron rolled his eyes. "When I have something bothering me about the war or Voldemort, I say it, don't I?"

Unfortunately Harry knew this to be true so he simply nodded and glared at his friend.

"There is _something_ bothering you and everyone can tell. No one wants to confront you on it, but now I'm starting to worry that you're hiding something important."

Harry tried to head out of the room, but Ron stretched an army out and leaned against the side of the door frame, blocking his escape route. "Get out of the way, Ron."

"No. Not until you let somebody to know what's going on. I don't care if it isn't me." Harry tried to duck under Ron's arm, but the Weasley was too quick to block his route.

_Bloody Quidditch Keeper_. "What makes you think I haven't? Maybe, just maybe, talking about it doesn't make it all go away."

Ron shrugged. "Maybe you have, but I doubt it." The fact that Ron called his bluff irritated Harry even more.

Harry simply grabbed Ron's arm and jerked him away from the doorframe. "Who I talk to isn't your concern." With that he simply headed down the hallway towards the lobby of the hotel. After a few seconds, he came to the conclusion that he was only upset because Ron was clearly correct. He was hiding things that he should have been sharing for his own mental health.

As he left Ron in the dust, he quickly took an elevator down to the bottom floor of the hotel. He supposed he could have gone out into Berlin, but the fact that he didn't speak German obviously was chewing at his mind. As he walked down a long carpeted hallway, he noticed the distinct scent of chlorine.

Harry knew well enough that this was associated mainly with swimming pools given the fact that prior to finding out he was a wizard, Dudley used to make Harry wait outside the pool while he and his friends went swimming. His cousin had seen this as a fitting punishment because Aunt Petunia had insisted that Dudley take Harry along just because she was sick of seeing him.

"There you are! Ron said you'd gone off somewhere!"

Quickly turning around to face the sound of the familiar voice, Harry came face to face to with Ginny. She was wearing a towel wrapped around her waist that fell to her knees. From there down she was completely bare minus the pair of bright orange sandals she had on. Of course, Harry only had a second to register her bare legs before he noticed the small two piece bathing suit top. It was also a bright orange that matched her hair quite well. Blinking stupidly for what seemed like ages, Harry tore his eyes away from Ginny's more feminine features and looked her in the eyes. Even still, he could feel a blush creeping into his cheeks. _Get a grip, Potter. They aren't even as big as-_ He stopped himself before he completed that thought.

Still, there was a mention of Ron that kept nagging in the front of his mind which kept him from fully enjoying the wonders of his girlfriend in a bathing suit. "And just what else did Ron say?" he asked somewhat more harshly than he had intended.

Ginny glared at him for a moment. "Nothing. What's wrong?"

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair and tried to act calm and cool. He realized he probably failed miserably. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?" he asked irritably.

The girl fixed him with a stare. "Because something's the matter? We went through this whole thing two years ago. I _know_ you now, Harry." She placed her hands on her towel covered hips.

Resigned, Harry nodded. "There was, but Ron and I talked about it." It wasn't exactly a lie, but Harry still felt rather bad saying it. "You're going swimming then?" He hoped to change the subject.

Ginny eyed him suspiciously for a few moments before nodding. "No, I just thought I should start dressing like this everyday."

Harry's eyes must have gone wider because Ginny began to laugh at his state of agitation.

"I'm only kidding. _Maybe_," there was a hint of mischievousness in that danced in her eyes and smile. "I went up to your room to get you, but Ron said you had just left. I was going to ask you to join me, but if you'd rather sulk-"

"I'll be right back," Harry said quickly and strode past her only to stop and turn around again. "I… didn't pack swimming trunks. Actually, I don't even own any." He felt quite embarrassed actually admitting this. "The Dursleys-"

Before Harry could explain why, Ginny placed two fingers on his lips and silenced him. She stepped up against him to whisper in his ear as an elderly couple passed by them in the hallway on their way to the pool.

"You're a wizard, you know. You can simply transfigure something into a suit. Of course, if you don't do it too well it might change back in the middle of the pool…" To Harry it looked like Ginny might be imaging this a little too vividly.

"Bruce!" screeched the old woman that had passed both Harry and Ginny moments before. "Stop staring you disgusting-!" There was a loud slapping sound.

By the time Ginny had spun around and Harry glanced up over her shoulder, the elderly man, Bruce, had his hands up in the defensive. "You look at younger men too! It's not my fault he was wearing clothes while that redhead was-"

"STOP MAKING A SCENE!"

"I'M NOT MAKING A SCENE YOU OLD HAG!"

"YOU ARE TOO, YOU WORTHLESS-"

From this point on both of them started screaming at each other at the same time and Harry quickly grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her into a room off the hallway and closed the door. With a quick flick of his wand he cast a silencing charm on it and the voices immediately died away.

"At least they were speaking English. They must be tourists. No one will understand their argument, except us, I guess," Harry said sheepishly. The room was pitch black and quite cramped. "Lumos."

The tip of his wand illuminated a small storage room that contained supplies needed for caring for a pool, or so Harry assumed. Ginny was pressed up against the door and Harry just realized for the first time that he was pressed lightly up against her. She had an odd look on her face. "Ginny? Don't take what that guy said personally-"

Ginny laughed, shaking her head. "Oh, I wasn't thinking about that at all." She shifted her weight, which was very noticeable to Harry as she brushed along his leg. "I was just thinking about how you grabbed me, pulled me into a dark storage room and then cast a silencing charm on the area."

"Nox," Harry said sharply, waving the light out of his wand to hide his blush. "You know I didn't mean it like that!"

In the darkness he heard Ginny giggle. "Oh, I know." Harry felt her slide up against him and for a second he thought she was purposely doing it just to add to his embarrassment, but she slipped entirely past him and into the back part of the storage room. There was a rustling noise and then Harry got attacked out of nowhere.

Harry spun around and grabbed at his face and pulled away what had attacked him. It was a towel that Ginny had thrown at him. He heard her laughing in the background. This caused him to glare in her general direction. "You know I could cast a quick spell to make this wet, roll it up and come after you." He'd never done it before, but Dudley and his gang had done so after swimming to him and chased him all the way back home. If someone as stupid as Dudley could do it, it couldn't have been complicated.

"Mr. Potter, are you threatening to spank me?" Ginny's mock surprise filled voice trailed seductively in the air. "Even if you are, it can wait until later. You should transfigure that into swimming trunks."

"Oh," Harry said lamely as he pointed his wand at the towel.

"What are you waiting for?" Ginny asked. Harry could tell she had her hands on her hips again. "I mean, I could do it for you, but I might make it too small like one of those thongs Tonks and Ross were talking about, or I might make it too large so that it keeps slipping off."

Harry raised an eyebrow as he waved his wand and transfigured the towel into a modest pair of Gryffindor scarlet swim trunks. "Miss Weasley, if I didn't know better I'd say you have a strong desire to see me naked."

"Possibly."

Harry thought he heard her lick her lips, but he couldn't be certain he wasn't just imaging things. Suddenly the room seemed to get really small and quite warm. "Uh, Ginny? Could you step out for a second so I could change into these?" Although he wasn't certain how, Harry could have sworn he heard Ginny roll her eyes.

"You know, there are changing rooms. Either way, its pitch black in here. I wouldn't _see_ anything and I couldn't even use Lumos as I don't have my wand with me…" Ginny explained, though her voice sounded slightly high pitched and strained. Was Ginny possibly getting embarrassed about their situation?

On the other hand, Harry wasn't sure he liked the way she said 'see'. Well, granted, he probably _would_ like what his mind was implying that she was implying, or something, but- _argh. Why do girls have to be so frustrating?_ "Out," he ordered plainly. "I might have made the trunks too small anyways."

"You're no fun," Ginny pouted as she brushed past him once again. The light from the hallway poured in when Ginny opened the door to exit. There was a blur as two people strode down the hallway.

"Oh! Hey-" Ginny called in greeting as the door closed and the silencing charm made the room soundproof once more.

Quickly, and with the light of his wand, Harry changed into his newly transfigured swimming trunks and transfigured his jeans into a towel. He had more pairs upstairs and could easily head back up in the trunks. When he was satisfied that the trunks weren't going to slide down no matter how much Ginny wanted them to, he excited the storage room and walked straight into a member of the hotel staff who didn't look pleased at all.

An hour later after Harry had talked his way out of trouble with the hotel staff, got some private swimming lesson's from Ginny (he had never learned to swim when he was younger), and endured quite a few people giving Ginny more than appreciative looks, he found himself relaxing in the steamy sauna with the youngest Weasley relaxing against him.

There was a gentle thud, but Harry barely noticed as Ginny's eyes opened and she slid into his lap. The thick steam made it hard to see direct features, but Ginny's blazing red hair made it easy to define her features easily. She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. "You did pretty well, you know," she said softly when she pulled away.

Though the swimming lesson with Ginny was quite enjoyable, Harry's mind rightfully was on vampires, Horcruxes, and everything else that was pressuring him. "Ginny…"

Ginny ignored him and leaned in to another kiss, which Harry resisted originally, but eventually gave in.

Subconsciously his hands moved to the sides of her stomach and he pulled her closer. She taunted him even more by wiggling in his lap. It didn't help that she was wearing a very small bathing suit bottom.

"Go on," Ginny urged him once she broke the kiss.

"Go on what?" Harry asked. It was hard to control his thoughts with her behaving the way she was. He wasn't really complaining, though.

She leaned forward and whispered seductively in his ear. "Touch me."

Harry's heart skipped a beat. "Are… what… where?" he asked, not entirely sure if he wanted to. He did, naturally, have other things to think about.

Ginny rolled her eyes and reached behind her back. She fumbled for a second before Harry realized what she was about to do.

"I don't think that's a good idea…" he started to say with his hormones resisting him at every syllable.

"Why not-" suddenly there was a loud clang as the metal scoop used dump water on the hot rocks fell to the floor and cut off the rest of Ginny's reply. Cursing followed it.

"Tonks!" Harry exclaimed.

Tonks moved forward into view favoring her foot. "Bloody thing, you can't see a thing in here-" she stopped when she noticed where Ginny was sitting and grinned. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Harry shook his head quickly. "No. We were just heading back up to our room. Rooms," he quickly corrected the last word. Ginny glared at him angrily.

"I see. I guess this is free for Remus and I then, right?"

Harry didn't give her an answer as he slid out from under Ginny and headed for the door. When he was outside the sauna he sighed in relief. As much as Ginny wanted to take their relationship further like that, he himself knew it was neither the time nor most definitely not the place.

* * *

Bright and early in the morning of October 31st, Harry informed the rest of his expeditionary force about what he, Ron, and Hermione had discovered about the mysterious _Nachtzehrer _vampires. It pained Harry to see that everyone was simply nodding with a grim determination. Well, he admired their determination, but felt bad for having to put everyone through this.

Nicolaus had arranged for a standard bus to take them up north towards Warheim and the general area of Grindelwald's tomb. The plan was simple. They were to infiltrate the _Nachtzehrer_'s territory, if they even existed, find the tomb, grab the Horcrux, and finally get back out before nightfall. This would insure that their encounters with the vampires would be kept at minimal, or so they hoped.

Of course that was simplifying things quite a bit. Harry had told them all in vivid detail, which was quite hard for him as he was trying to forget, what had happened in the cave when he and Dumbledore had attempted to retrieve Slytherin's Locket. He was impressed that this did little to change their determined state of mind and he wished that he felt as confident as everyone else did. Perhaps everyone was just good at keeping their true thoughts hidden, however.

At an early hour of five in the morning, Nicolaus lead the group of witches and wizards out to the front of their hotel where a large silver bus was waiting. Hermione quickly stepped on Ron's foot before he could make a comment about the Knight Bus or some other wizarding world standard right in front of the suspicious driver who was already giving them odd looks. Perhaps this was because the Order of Light members were dressed in their white battle cloaks. Nicolaus quickly talked with the driver in German and passed him a stack of what Harry assumed to be tickets. The driver gave them another odd look, rolled his eyes, and climbed back into the bus.

"I've convinced him that we're doing a theatrical production up in Warheim," said Nicolaus with a suave grin that might have melted the heart of any woman around. "Let's just pretend that's true, alright? I'm supposed to be the group manager." They all grumbled in agreement and walked on to the bus.

Ironically the only difference between the Knight Bus and a regular bus was not how smooth the ride was. Whereas the Knight Bus could travel nearly anywhere, just not across water, in the blink of an eye, a regular muggle bus traveled at a pathetically slow rate in comparison. Four hours later, the bus dropped off the expeditionary force in front of a small broken down theatre in Warheim.

"Merlin, that smell was bad," Ron grumbled as he took a deep breath through his nose. "I thought I was going to die." There were lots of murmurs of agreement.

No one was in a good mood. Nerves, exhaustion from being up at such an early hour, and being confined to a bus with a rotten smell for four hours didn't exactly put them in the best mindset. Harry looked across the street and across a large field to the outskirts of a sprawling forest. Nearly directly across from them there was a small path leading deep into the woods.

Harry gestured to it with a nod of his head. "I guess that's our route." Nobody said anything as they began to trek across the field towards the edge of the woods, but Harry knew what they must have been thinking exactly what he was. It seemed way too easy. Of course that was far from the truth because of the peak of a foothill coming from the center of the forest. It was covered in an unnatural dark mist.

"And this was hard to find?" Ginny asked, eyeing the peak from halfway across the field. "That sticks out like a sore thumb. How could anyone not notice that there's something wrong here?"

"That's a magical aura. Only witches and wizards can see it," explained Remus. He turned back to face the small town of Warheim. "I don't gather a place like this gets many magical travelers." Harry had to agree as Warheim was little more than one small commercial strip comprising of the run down theatre, a grocery store, a church, and what was probably a school. Behind the commercial strip, if one would want to call it that, there were about thirty houses. The town's population couldn't have been over one hundred.

The group began to head towards the forest again when a loud bang sounded and suddenly Moody was diving across Harry's line of sight and tackling both Harry and Ron to the ground. There were similar thuds as everyone else followed suit, usually being forced down by Tonks or Ross. Whatever had happened, Harry knew that Aurors were obviously trained to deal with it.

"What the bloody hell-"

Moody cut Ron off with a sharp glare from his electric blue eye. "Muggles with guns," he growled.

Someone called out in German and Nicolaus immediately replied. After a few more exchanges he beckoned for everyone to stand up. The group slowly got to their feet and for the first time got a look at their attackers.

They appeared to be muggles brandished an assortment of guns. The man who had shot into the air with a long, old fashioned rifle was in his mid twenties with a dark complexion supported by dark hair and eyes. Beside him there was an elderly man, most likely the first man's father or grandfather, also holding a long rifle. On the other side of the first man stood a kid who couldn't have been older than twelve holding a pistol as well.

The first man yelled in German again, keeping his gun pointing into the air, but the old man and the boy kept their weapons trained on the crowd. "He says he cannot allow us to enter the forest," Nicolaus quickly translated.

"What? Why not?" Harry asked quickly, his eyes narrowing and wondering if he was about to fight muggles. He knew he had to enter that forest now that he had seen the dark magical aura. Voldemort definitely would have placed a Horcrux somewhere in it. Nicolaus spoke back to the muggles in rapid German. He got a reply almost instantly.

"They say that whenever someone enters the forest they disappear forever and something bad happens to the city. Disease, mainly. Sometimes livestock go mad or get slaughtered," Nicolaus said with a grimace. "Sounds like the Nachtzehrer-"

Upon hearing the vampire's name uttered, the first man brought his gun to bare right at Nicolaus' chest. He screamed in German. For a split second Harry thought the man was about to shoot, but out of the corner of his eye he saw two quick flashes of blue followed quickly by a third. All three muggles slumped to the ground only to get up again a second later looking confused.

"Tell them that they were just wishing us farewell and heading back to their house," Harry heard Tonks whisper into Nicolaus' ear. Their German guide quickly relayed the message and the muggles waved before heading away.

"Nice to see some people think quickly," growled Moody as he steadied himself to his foot and fake leg. Harry finally caught on. Both Tonks and Ross had quickly cast memory charms on the muggles in the blink of an eye.

"Oh don't be so cheerful, Mad-Eye. You did train our class after all," Tonks said, nudging the ex-Auror in the shoulder with her elbow. "Would it kill you to smile?" Moody simply glared at her.

"Can we just get a move on it?" Harry sighed as he looked back towards the uninviting forest. It sent a chill down his spine and he was pretty sure he knew why. They were willingly walking into an enemy stronghold unlike everyone other battle they had fought on a friendly or neutral field. This would be entirely different. Without waiting for any reply, Harry began to stride towards the tree line while everyone hurried in his wake.

Harry stopped at the edge of the forest and stared down the ominous path. It was almost as if the _Nachtzehrer_ were directing them in, but, then again, why wouldn't they? No one in the village was stupid enough to go in and the Order of Light really wouldn't have set foot in the forest if there wasn't a piece of Voldemort's soul sitting in there somewhere. Of course, how the _Nachtzehrer_ were connected to Voldemort and Grindelwald, Harry didn't know, but was quite keen on finding out. There were sprinkles of light cutting through the canopy of the forest down the path which made it quite bright, for the first bit, anyways. Taking a deep breath, Harry entered the forest with Ron and Hermione a mere half-step behind him.

"This is pretty nice," commented Hermione randomly when they had been walking for about twenty minutes. Indeed it was, though the entire thing was very unnerving. The path was perfectly straight and leading directly towards where they spotted the dark aura. However, despite the abundant plant growth, there were no signs of wildlife at all. It was as if they had all deserted the forest for some unknown reason. If anyone really thought about they'd realize it was definitely… odd. If there were no woodland animals, how was the plant life kept in check? It was questions like these that were playing through everyone's minds.

It was after another twenty minutes of walking that Tonks let out an angry cry. "That bastard!" she shrieked out of nowhere, causing everyone to spin around and face her. She and Nicolaus had been bringing up the rear. Except, what Tonks was obviously shrieking about, Nicolaus had vanished. "That coward! I can't believe he ditched us like this!"

"Did he betray us?" Remus asked quietly.

"Nah, he'd never betray us," answered Ross idly. "He just… well… is a complete coward?"

"That's fair, I guess. We never did tell him we were heading directly into… wherever," Harry suggested with a shrug.

"Except we don't know German, now do we?" Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

Remus spoke up again. "There's little we can do about it right now, but perhaps we should keep going? We have limited hours of daylight remaining." This was a fact that no one really wanted to admit and so the group trudged on.

It wasn't until after they had stopped for a quick bite to eat that Hermione made another comment. "I hope I'm not the only one that realizes something is seriously wrong here," she said, trying not to offend anyone.

"Yes, no one stopped to pay homage to that Yeklipsy burrow ten minutes ago…"

"This isn't the time for your silly theories, Luna," Hermione replied bitterly. "It's getting _dark_. It shouldn't be getting dark."

This was very true. The canopy wasn't thick enough to block out the light and, in fact, they could still see the sky, but the forest was getting very, very dark. This also wasn't a good sign at all given the fact that they were counting on the light to last under they snatched the Horcrux and left. It appeared that wasn't going to happen.

"Magic?" Harry suggested helplessly. "I suppose I don't need to tell anyone here that this isn't a good situation, but we have to go on anyways, right?" He received a bunch of nods. "Then-" he stopped in mid sentence as something quick bounded across the path. He drew his wand and glanced around the area while the rest of his group did the same. "We're definitely not alone."

"James used to say clichés like that all the time too."

"You're welcome to come up with your own comments if you'd like, Moony," Harry replied dryly as he continued to scan the area. When the group found nothing they proceeded at a more subdued pace. It wasn't long before they had to rely on their wands for light as they each cast Lumos in turn and used their wands to guide them through the underbrush. They'd be lying if they said the path was still as easy as it was before. In the absence of light the planets seemed to grow even wilder than they had with ample sunlight. Roots and even holes regularly played across the once simple to navigate path and caused the group's pace to slow.

Eventually, they came upon a lone rabbit sitting in the middle of the path. It was just sitting there staring directly at them and unmoving. This was unnerving enough on its own, but within seconds a pig appeared by its side on the other side a long doe approached. Harry heard Ginny gasp behind him and followed her pointing finger and spied two birds perched high up in a tree. Within seconds his attention was directed by Ross and showed another four animals behind them: another deer, another rabbit, a pony, and a butterfly.

The lead rabbit, the one in front of Harry, took a step forward. Here, Harry noticed by the glow of the light, that it had a red, almost carnal, glint in its eyes. Before his very eyes, the rabbit quickly shifted into a dark figure wearing a cloak. The vampire had burning red eyes and probably could have stepped out of one of the old muggle horror films that Dudley used to watch when Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon weren't around. The other animals soon shifted into similar looking creatures, though Harry noted with some degree of satisfaction that they light from their wands was making them hesitate and shy away from looking directly at their group.

Unfortunately with Nicolaus gone the group had no way of translating what the lead vampire began shouting at them.

"We don't speak German," Harry said off hand. "Do you speak English?"

This confused the vampires slightly, but Harry definitely understood their next attempted communication. In unison all of the vampires bared their fangs and advanced by holding up one arm up by their face and using the cloak to shield their eyes from the light. Behind him, Harry heard Hermione cast the bubblehead charm on herself. He and the others immediately followed suit, but they were suddenly plunged into darkness. Not total darkness, mind you, but enough so that they could barely see the outlines of the vampires.

"Lumos!" Harry shouted a little louder than he wanted to, but he was desperate to get some light source again. He heard a few people cast the light charm again, but his attention was focused more or less on the sole vampire in front of him. Two were missing. They didn't take long to spot as Harry immediately look up into the trees and spied the two vampires soaring on great, leathery black wings.

"They can fly?" Ron exclaimed loudly in surprise. "When did it say they could-"

"Look out!" Harry yelled as he grabbed the cloak of the person beside him and tugged him or her off to the side as the two aerial vampires suddenly changed direction and swooped downwards into them middle of the group of witches and wizards. The Order of Light scattered, diving into the deep underbrush on either sides of the path. Only a few wand tips remained lit up, plunging the area darker still.

The vampire that had remained on the ground moved with surprising speed towards where Harry had dove out of the way.

"You know, Harry, I _did_ see them coming-" Remus began as he pulled himself to his knees, but stopped mid sentence as the vampire rushed their position.

"Stupefy!" Harry cried, but the vampire was either too quick, or it was a little too dark for Harry to aim properly, and the spell sailed harmless into a tree beside the dark creature. Remus' own spell had similar results and missed entirely, disappearing into the ferns and other underbrush. "Give me some light!" Harry whispered fiercely behind him. It only took Remus a second to comply, which suggested that he was already thinking of doing just that.

The light glowed from the tip of the Marauder's wand and illuminated the area enough so that Harry could easily spot the vampire a mere two meters from his position. The creature had used his cloak to swiftly block the light from reaching his eyes. The good thing about this was that it stopped him from moving for the time being and Harry quickly hit him with a spell directly in the chest.

The vampire blinked, turned around, and marched directly into a tree. He hit with such force that he collapsed to the ground and wearily got to his feet again and headed off somewhere out of the battle.

"Confundus?" Remus asked. "Why not just stun him or otherwise?"

"I've learned from werewolves that many magical creatures get out of stunning spells very quickly," Harry explained as he headed back towards the main battle with the old Marauder in tow.

"Good idea then," Harry heard Remus say from behind him.

The main battle was complete chaos. Harry could barely pick out what was going on between all the spells flying through the brush, into the air, and generally in every direction possible. He could tell where some of his friends were just by the occasional Lumos spell that was being cast. He spotted one vampire dive bomb towards three members of his order.

It was the wrong target for the vampire to pick. Both Tonks and Ross fired cutting hexes into the Vampire's wings which nearly sheered them both off. The deep gashes caused the vampire to lose control a plough straight into the ground. Moody quickly stood up and fired a stunner which caught the downed vampire directly in the head. The ex-Auror then immediately cast a second spell and bound the vampire with strong magical ropes. With his task complete, Moody's eye swirled around at a blind speed while Ross quickly cast Lumos to give him light. Tonks kept her wand at the ready while Harry marveled at how formidable a team of Aurors could be. Moody barked an order that Harry didn't understand, but Tonks and Ross certainly did. All three Aurors immediately began to fire spells at a second vampire.

Harry darted across the path with Remus right behind him and dove into another clump of underbrush as a jet of green light, though not the Killing Curse, soared through the air and would have connected with his head had he not dove at that precise moment.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed as Harry landed beside him. "I thought you were one of them… they're everywhere-" He stopped to take a shot at another dark shadow.

There was a rustling in the bushes and Hermione came right up side Harry and Ron. "There are more of them coming from over there," she said, pointing behind here as there was a second rustling sound. "What we need is some sort of large area effect… or something." Hermione was clearly thinking hard with her brow furled in concentration. In the distance, Harry could see Ginny, Neville, and Justin firing flurries of spells to keep the advancing new arrivals back.

"Why not use an actual light spell?" Luna suggested from right beside Harry, which caused him to jump and then take a deep breath to steady himself. He had only absent-mindedly heard her approach.

Hermione, as usual, scoffed at the idea. "Be real, Luna. Those don't exist." She turned back to Harry and Ron. "I guess we just need to keep firing spells at them… make them back off…"

Harry nodded and the four students headed over to the frontlines and added their combined spells. The vampires, however, seemingly dodged everything by blending in with shadows. The only reason they knew they were shooting at anything in particular was because many of the shadows kept darting to and froe. _Blast it, we can't hit anything and a single Lumos isn't going to drive them back…_ Harry barely had time to finish his thought when someone yelled in his ear.

"_Lumen telum_!"

A bright flash of light erupted from the end of the wand that had cast it and flashed into a spear. It penetrated deep into center of the vampires before exploding in a blinding ball of light. The vampire nearest to the epicenter disintegrated into a fine powder while the others howled in obvious pain and retreated far out of sight.

Quickly turning to face the caster, Harry blinked in surprise. Luna was standing with her wand still pointed forward, but was clearly panting from lack of breath. The spell had taken quite a lot out of her. Her knees began to buckle as her wand arm fell to her side and Harry barely managed to catch her before she collapsed to the ground. With a shrug, he managed to sling her arm around his shoulders so that he could support her weight.

"Just _what_ was that?" Hermione exclaimed. "That couldn't have been… no…"

"It was," Luna smiled weakly.

"But they don't _exist_! I keep telling you this!"

"Bloody hell, Hermione. Those spells obviously do exist!" Ron said, his mouth hanging open in shock. Hermione turned and shot him a dark glare before fixing it back on the Ravenclaw.

"And _where_ did you learn that?" she asked suspiciously.

"_Rumored Lost Spells_. There were some fascinating things in there. You really should read it. It actually explained how the Ancient Roman wizards used to hunt down and slay dark creatures like the Bandersnatch-"

"They're _RUMORED_," Hermione thundered. "They don't exist!" she fumed on the spot for a second. "There is no record of how to cast that spell _anywhere_."

Luna opened her mouth to reply, but simply closed it and looked down. "Fine, believe what you want. It's what you're good at anyways." She tried to walk away under her own power, but struggled to keep her balance. Harry quickly grabbed on to her upper arm.

After shooting a quick scowl at Hermione, Harry leaned in close and whispered in the blonde girl's ear. "That's just the way she gets when she doesn't understand something, you know." He got a slight nod in return so he left it at that. Ron was already explaining what had just happened to a bewildered Ginny, Neville, Justin, Ross and Tonks while Moody merely looked suspicious as usual. Harry cleared his throat. "As close as that was, we really do have to keep going… and that means we're going to encounter more of them… and it's only getting darker…" he gestured somewhat with his free hand as most of his right side was being used to support Luna's weight.

Truth be told they weren't too far from the center of the forest where the dark aura was hanging over, but it would take them at least an hour to make it there due to the slower pace they were forced to go out as Luna regained her strength. One new problem they encountered, which was entirely unexpected, was that the dark aura radiating from whatever village the vampires had cancelled out their light. Only through constant concentration and strength could a few of them manage to keep a Lumos spell going, but very weak ones at that. Harry, Ginny, and Neville were spread throughout the group to keep some degree of light present.

Remus, who was their resident expert on dark creatures, explained that the aura didn't mean that vampires themselves were evil. After all, regular humans could be turned into vampires just by being bitten much like anyone could be turned into a werewolf. The aura exuded by their magic caused darkness in general because of their sensitivity to light. Because of this, vampires were classified as dark creatures just like werewolves. Of course, vampires did need to feed on blood to survive and usually were involved in some less than noble practices so their reputations really suffered. The attack Harry had witnessed in the woods made him just how innocent some vampires could be. _Still, we basically offered them a free feast_. He shuddered at the thought.

With their lights flickering and the three who had the ability struggling to keep them on, the group found themselves in front of a stone archway with ancient inscriptions on it. It was far too dark, even with their meager light sources, to see beyond the gate without passing the threshold themselves. As a collective they stepped under the archway and entered what appeared to be a graveyard.

As the group edged forward and saw nothing unusual, save for opened graves. When they came closer to the side of a large hill with a solid stone door, there was a flurry of movement.

"How nice of you to join us," hissed one of the closest vampires, who were standing just a few feet from Ross. The vampire who spoke was wearing an odd pendant in the form of an elongated vampire fang. One of the other vampires to his right spoke to him in German and he translated. "The Queen of the Night approaches. After your display in the forest she is most eager to meet you."

Though it was very hard to see, due mainly to the lack of light, a few of the vampires parted and allowed another to step forward. She was easily the most recognizable. Her robes were blood red and she wore an elegant headdress that looked to be comprised of bones and dark stone (Harry figured that magic must have been used to make it weigh less, otherwise her neck would have snapped already). Her face was quite pale, but still smooth as well as quite beautiful. Her lips were a ruby red and she had a confident smile. "And who are you to enter our lands uninvited and start conflict?" she asked it a somewhat hypnotic voice.

"Harry Potter, and, to be fair, your subordinates attacked us," Harry replied while trying to keep his voice calm and collected.

"Do we not have a right to protect our lands and the single place we've been assigned to watch over for decades?"

Harry felt himself yawn, but he shook his head to stay awake. "Yes, you do, but we did not come here intending to cause trouble," he answered honestly. "May I ask your name?" If there was thing Harry had learned from the goblins, centaurs and merpeople, it was to treat them with formal respect.

The vampire smiled slightly and flicked her tongue over her lips to wet them before baring her fangs for intimidation. "I am Lady Astragal. My proper title, however, is Queen of the Night."

"I've read about her!" Hermione suddenly whispered in his ear. "She's one of the most famous vampires-"

Harry waved her off quickly as the other vampire who was holding the pendant began to move closer to hear what they were saying. He also didn't want to make it sound like they were plotting anything. "A pleasure to meet you," he answered with a curt nod of his head. "I was wondering if I could enter the tomb behind us, perhaps?"

The smile faded from Lady Astragal's face. "If that is why you have come here, perhaps I should let me caste feed on you freely. That is what we have been protecting since the Great War. Entrance to even us is forbidden."

_Damnit_. "Who ordered you to guard that place?" Ron jumped in, asking with some degree of annoyance.

The vampire with the pendant snarled. "Who are you to ask such a thing?" He took a menacing step forward and let his cloak billow like Snape. "I will tell you one thing, the _Nachtzehrer_ are never ordered to do-"

"That's enough, Nagazel." Astragal was giving the other English speaking vampire an icy look. The other vampire bowed away respectfully and took a step back. "I find it amusing, Harry Potter, that you come in here and demand such a thing."

"I never demanded anything." Harry chose his words carefully. "I asked if I could."

"And you did not earn the right," Astragal snapped back although she had what looked to be an amused smirk on her face.

Harry frowned. "And how would I earn the right?"

Astragal simply gestured a hand toward Harry. "The test is simple. Survive." Before Harry or anyone else could react to her words she waved her hand and the surrounding party of vampires immediately closed in around the Order of the Light.

Moody, Tonks, and Ross were the first to reach and let loose with a flurry of spells to the group's right flank. The vampires scattered there, but much to Harry's surprise many of them had drawn wands themselves. _Of course… werewolves can be either muggles or wizards, why can't vampires?_ Harry glanced back over his shoulder and confirmed that both Lady Astragal and the vampire named Nagazel, who wore the pendant, had drawn wands.

Harry was jerked out of his observation by Remus as the werewolf grabbed his shoulder and pulled him through the gap the Aurors had opened up in the vampire's lines. A spell sent by Nagazel whizzed past his head and hit the outside of Grindelwald's tomb. "Remus! I can walk by myself-" he half uttered as the werewolf used his strength to pull and nearly throw Harry around the corner of a rather large tombstone.

Remus glared at him. "Then why were you standing there inviting them to hit you?"

"I wasn't!" Harry replied hotly. "I just checked to see if all of them were witches and wizards!"

"You were standing there for a good ten seconds in a daze," Remus replied with a sigh. He glanced around the corner of the tombstone. "Looks like everyone got out of their little surround in time…"

"_Ten seconds_? Are you insane, Moony? It couldn't have been more than-"

"Lady Astragal has some sort of hypnotic powers. You fell right into her trap. They would have been on you in seconds if they hadn't looked so amused by it," Remus cut off the younger Gryffindor.

"But-" hailstorm of spells cut off Harry's retort as they impacted on the opposite side of the tombstone. Some were simple jinxes, but others were powerful curses that began to break the ancient slab of stone apart. "Over there!" Harry quickly pointed to a large monument that was made out of marble. It was barely visible in the darkness. Harry was struggling to keep his wand lit. Somewhere off in the distance he could see another faint glow from either Neville or Ginny.

The two sprinted towards the large monument as the regular tombstone they were originally hiding behind exploded into dangerous shards. Remus pointed his wand behind his back and fired a Reductor curse. There was a screech, so Harry figured that there had been contact. In the time it takes to blink, two vampires swooped down out of nowhere and landed directly in front of Harry and Remus.

With his very limited visibility Harry couldn't stop in time. The fact that he was sprinting at his top speed didn't help either. He ploughed straight into one of the vampires. The contact knocked the wind out of his lungs and sent them both crashing down painfully onto the ground with Harry on top. Struggling for a breath, Harry rolled off of the vampire just as the creature sunk its teeth downwards where his neck had just been. Instead the fangs tore a gash into his robes. With a glance to the side Harry saw that the second vampire was on top of Remus. Before Harry could even move something, he wasn't sure what it was due to the blinding darkness, seemed to pick up the vampire into the air.

The vampire Harry had collided with was on his feet now, but it crumpled back down to the ground as soon as Harry looked over. It groaned before a second spell hit it in the side and knocked it out.

"Harry!"

Ginny and Justin appeared at his and Remus' side looking quite dirty, but otherwise alright. Ginny especially seemed to have a lot of dirt on her cheeks and face.

"Quickly, we have to get back to the tomb entrance and find a way in," Harry explained quickly as he took a deep breath. The group nodded. In the distance they could see the light of Neville's wand making its way towards them.

They waited until they formed up, but were surprised at the utter lack of resistance they had faced so far given how many vampires were surrounding them. Harry stilled wondered where exactly Moody, Tonks, and Ross were, but from the flashes of spells he figured they were in the vicinity of Grindelwald's tomb.

"They have pure ones with themmmmm…" a nearly hissing voice came out of the darkness.

"Yes… pure…" a second voice answered the first as a group of six vampires came into the faint light provided by Harry, Ginny, and Neville. They seem transfixed upon Hermione and Luna, who were standing next to each other, and were licking their lips.

"Ewww, gross," Hermione nearly wretched at the thought and pointed her wand at the closest vampire. "Don't even _think_ about it."

"It has been a long time since we have drank the blood of pure maidens," the vampire who had spoken first said again. While all the vampires had a faint look of hunger in their eyes, these looked as if they would simply perish if they didn't feed.

"Stop." The voices was oozing with authority and, though they were somewhat reluctant, the vampires bowed and parted away to let Lady Astragal make her way to the front. She glared at Harry directly with her eyes sparking. "What have you done?" she demanded.

Harry blinked. He was still somewhat stunned and confused by the comments towards Hermione and Luna. Things kept happening so fast. "What I've done?" he blurted out by accident.

"Yes, something is amiss… I sense it," Astragal closed her eyes briefly. Once they were open again, she stared at Harry again, but this time the look was less harsh. In fact, Harry never really realized how beautiful Lady Astragal's eyes were until this point in time.

Harry sighed to himself, closed his eyes, and then opened them again to find Lady Astragal lying flat on her back and Ginny screaming something. When the self proclaimed Queen of the Night sat back up and staggered to her feet Harry noticed her face was covered in dark blood. One of her two vampire fangs was broken as well.

"You'll pay for that, little girl," Astragal hissed as Harry shook his head once more.

Remus nudged Harry painfully in the ribs, though it seemed to bring Harry back to his senses. "This is what I was talking about, Harry. You have to be careful when dealing with her. If Ginny hadn't given her that blunt force charm in the face there who knows what you would have done."

Harry nodded weakly. He still felt slightly light headed.

"Where is Nazagel?" Astragal questioned as her tongue rubbed the jagged edge of her fang that was missing the tip. She didn't seem to mind the blood streaming from her nose.

One of the vampires answered in German, but it didn't take a second language to realize what he had said displeased Astragal. In fact, displeased would have been a pretty big understatement.

"He dares? You _let_ him?" Astragal shrieked. He drew her wand and pointed it at her subordinate. There was a flash and the vampire vanished in a pillar of purple flame. When it subsided there was nothing left. She turned to the other vampires and spoke in German. They quickly turned into bats, though Harry thought this was rather stereotypical when they clearly could have chosen any animal, and flew off into the darkness. "Do as you please. I have more important matters to deal with," Lady Astragal sneered before she too turned into a bat and disappeared.

"What the bloody hell was all that about?" Ron stood there with his jaw extended in pure surprised. "Why does nothing _ever _make sense?"

"Things make sense, but just not to you," Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes.

"It sounds as if there's some inner turmoil," Remus added thoughtfully. "Still, we shouldn't trust that we'll be safe from them. Let's go over to the tomb and see if we can't get this over with quickly."

"I still can't believe they wanted the blood of vir-"

"It doesn't matter," Ginny interrupted. "Let's just go."

The group agreed and they met up with the Aurors standing in front of the tomb's entrance. There were about three stunned or dead vampires lying sprawled on the ground around them.

"Where are the other ones, Potter?" Moody demanded once he saw the larger group.

"Preoccupied with… something," Harry sighed. "I have no idea what's going on, but I'm pretty sure that's not the last we'll be see of the _Nachtzehrer_."

"Obviously, Potter," Moody said as he turned his attention back to the stone slab that marked the entrance into the side of the hill which was Grindelwald's tomb.

"_Open_," Harry commanded as he focused on the door intently. He appeared to be staring down a solid wall, quite literally.

"Uh, Harry?" Ginny asked. "What are you doing?"

Harry reddened. "Uhh… I guess Grindelwald wasn't a Parselmouth…" Luna giggled while Hermione pushed past all three of them and examined the door more closely.

"There are some runes here. Maybe they explain how to open it…"

As Hermione studied the runes intently Ron pointed his wand at the door and muttered "Alohomora." The slab rumbled loudly for a second before it slid off to the side. Torches inside of the tomb sprung to life showing a narrow staircase leading downwards into depths unknown.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," Justin exclaimed. "Ron did something right?"

"It was… a joke," Ron said as his ears reddened.

"Joke nothing, my boy. That's the kind of talent that would make a great Auror. Thinking outside the box, I tell you!" Moody growled happily.

"Whatever," Harry said as he felt the butterflies in his stomach. He hesitantly stepped into the narrow passed and looked down the lit staircase. It went farther than he could see and he groaned. "It's going to be huge."

"But we don't have a choice," Hermione reminded him.

"Nope, we don't," agreed Harry as he began to descend the staircase.

To be continued.


	17. Privacy Wards and Spider Hordes

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 17 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Post HBP! With the death of Albus Dumbledore, those corrupted by evil are becoming ever more bold and aggressive. Harried by both Dark and the Ministry, Harry Potter and his friends come into their own--and they are willing to fight.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Jane wrote the summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching. We've determined that this is bugging me on AIM when I'm slacking off while wearing skimpy clothing (not that this has anything to do with the actual definition of 'wench').

**A/N** - I'm blaming the release date of this chapter on the holiday season and there's nothing you can do about it! Ok rather I've decided a better excuse. Judging by where this chapter leaves off, and of course where it began, I've decided that having a small chapter is a good thing. This sets the scene for something big that does end for a while.

Oh and this makes formatting easier for a bunch of sites!

Phoenix Wright is awesome, by the way.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 17**

**Privacy Wards and Spider Hordes**

"_The Itsy Bitsy Spider…" _

It didn't really surprise Harry in the slightest that the staircase descended an immensely far distance. Had it not, he would have actually been disappointed. He had come to except pointless large and grand things from the Dark Lords. To fit the pattern, Grindelwald's tomb seemed to be quite huge, if the initial staircase was any hint as to what was to come. Harry knew he had been descending the stairs with his entire group behind him for several minutes now, albeit at a slow and cautious pace as Moody had instructed them given the fact that Astragal and the vampires could show up behind them, and he couldn't see the end of the staircase.

The most amazing thing, Harry realized, was the fact that the tomb seemed to be in a clean condition. Instead of cobwebs and layers of dust, as he expected to see, it was spotless. It was almost as if there were several house elves running around to clean the place daily. Of course, knowing the wizarding world, that might actually be the case.

Eventually the group came down to the bottom of the staircase. From here there was a short hallway to what looked like an antechamber, which led even farther into the tomb. As Harry cautiously led the group towards the doorway to the antechamber, there was a loud cry of anguish from behind him. Quickly spinning around, Harry saw Moody hunched over and clawing with his calloused hands on his magical eye.

With a growl of pain, the ex-Auror ripped the eye out of its socket and threw it to the ground where it suddenly shattered into small razor sharp shards a few inches above the ground.

Harry wasn't sure what had happened until there was an explanation given to him by Moody when the ex-Auror had fully recovered and caught his breath.

"Bloody wards," growled Moody as he shook his head. "'Nearly didn't get it out in time…"

"Erm, Professor?" Hermione asked suddenly. "What happened with your eye-?"

"I ain't your Professor, Granger. Never was," Moody snapped back. "Was anti-spying ward. I didn't even know those still existed."

"You mean it stops your eye and any other objects that can see through solid objects from working?"

Moody's reply was simply an affirmative grunt. "Don't worry about it, Potter. Just keep going."

Harry nodded and took another breath. For the first time he stopped and focused on the four torches that were arranged in a U shape around the doorway to the ante-chamber. Something caught his eye. The first golden torch holder was engraved with what looked like a stone man. The second seemed to be some really odd floating creature while the third was plainly a bird. The last one was what looked like simply a muggle fish. Harry found the last one particularly interesting since it was so plain and, well, muggle-like. It was odd, but Harry was glad that it wasn't snakes. He had plainly had enough with snakes.

As slowly as possible, Harry inched his way into the antechamber. Immediately the torches sprang to life and illuminated the room with flickering light. Harry suddenly became violently sick to his stomach. Although there was absolutely no reason for it, he felt like his insides had been turned mixed up and re-arranged and for a frantic moment he realized that could actually be the case. He stumbled forward a few steps and then felt his foot fall through the floor altogether. His arms swung wildly in a flapping motion as he tried to steady himself, but it was no use. He slipped forward, his mind still dizzy and clouded.

The feeling of weightlessness consumed him. The dizziness never abated. His eyes closed and darkness overwhelmed. It was then that someone hit him hard in the stomach. His eyes opened and he gasped for breath and sputtered for a few moments before his clouded vision cleared. Harry was lying on his back and the rest of the group, save Moody, surrounded him in a circle and was peering downwards. Harry gave them his best glare. "Alright," he wheezed without a complete breath. The wind had been knocked out of him. "Who… who hit me in the stomach?" For some reason he stared directly at Ron and fixed his best friend with a glare that would have made McGonagall proud.

Ron recoiled. "It wasn't me, mate! It was her." He pointed across the circle at Luna, who looked entirely out of it and wasn't even paying attention.

Harry sighed and just ignored the situation. Sitting up slowly and shaking his head to clear it, he noticed that he had collapsed on the edge of a large pit that seemed to have no ending.

"You fell in, Harry! The floor just disappeared as you took a step on to it!" There was a flurry of movement from Harry's right and suddenly a bright red streak crossed his vision. The impact of Ginny throwing her arms around Harry was enough to knock him somewhat closer than he would have liked to the endless pit itself. He ran his hand through the strands of red hair that had flown over Ginny's shoulder and hit him in the face.

"I'm alright, Ginny, I'm alright, but… it was weird. As soon as I set foot in the room I felt sick to my stomach. I didn't know what was going on. Merlin, I barely remember falling. Next thing I knew I woke up to you lot staring at me," Harry explained as Ginny helped him unsteadily to his feet.

"Ron tried to grab you, Harry," Neville explained after appearing at Harry's side as well and offering his shoulder in support. "He managed to grab your shoulder, but your weight pulled him into the pit too. None of the rest of us felt sick, though."

"So how did we manage to, um, not die?" Harry finished rather lamely.

"It was a good thing Remus was here," chipped in Hermione, who had just pushed her way past Ron. The redhead gave her an annoyed look and rubbed his arm where Hermione had forcefully pushed him. "He managed to catch you both with a quick Wingardium Leviosa. I always knew that spell would be important."

"Right… anyways, what next?" Harry was quick to change the subject, he didn't feel that staying on the topic of his and Ron's near death experience would help anything.

"Always thinking about the right thing, eh Potter?" Moody's voice came from behind the circle of Harry's friends. "Constant Vigilance, Potter. Remember that. Can't count on Lupin here to save you everywhere, now…"

"Right, of course not," Harry muttered as he headed to the front of the group and peered into the next room. It was too dark for him to see exactly what was in it. He waved his wand and had the tip spring to life before sticking it through the doorway and into the next room. "Huh?" he exclaimed, somewhat stupidly. The next room was still entirely dark as if the room itself disallowed light to exist. He pulled his arm back and saw that the tip of his wand was still alight. "What the-"

"Privacy charm," groaned Tonks and Ross simultaneously. "We won't be able to see what's beyond there unless we walk in. Of course Mad-Eye's eye _would_ have been able to see in there…"

"… but that's why it broke, yeah I get it." Harry sighed and concentrated on the darkness. Without as much as a warning to anyone else he took a step forward into the blackened room. There were some cries of protest from Hermione and Ginny, but Harry ignored them as he came face to face with a giant web.

The room was actually well lit, which allowed Harry to fully understand the Privacy charm that Tonks had briefly explained. It was simply like a magical black curtain. Quite simple, but one would have to actually set foot in the room to see what was in it. This was quite a smart idea, if a simple one, in this case since if Harry had moved in even an inch more he would have been stuck in a giant spider web. The web glistened in the light of the torches scattered about the medium sized room. It was slightly smaller, area wise, than the previous antechamber, but there were webs scattered everywhere that formed somewhat of a crude maze. Harry looked up at the ceiling and half expected to see some giant spider that would have rivaled Aragog in size, but the ceiling of the room was elevated far too high to see. There were also strands of web heading from the walls and up into the darkness above.

"Figures... I guess we can get through this web slowly if we take our time…" he muttered to himself as he eyed the door on the other side of the maze of web.

"Harry! What… Ooof," Ron came barreling through the door and crashed into Harry's back. The result was Harry falling forward, face first, into a wall of web.

"Gah!" Harry exclaimed as he struggled and tried to get out of the web. He quickly found that his feet, arms, and chest were all stuck firmly against the stick, white, vine-like substance. He flailed around. "Ron you bloody-! Get me out of here!"

"Sorry, mate!" Ron said quickly, his face going red. He quickly moved over beside the web, careful not to touch it directly for risk of getting himself stuck. After a few moments of tugging, while everyone else had entered the room and was carefully making their way through the web or proposing ideas on how to get Harry unstuck, Ron stopped. "You're stuck pretty well there. Not really sure what to do. I suppose we could burn it off-"

"NO!" exclaimed Hermione, who was out of Harry's sight. "You can't!"

Harry gnashed his teeth together a few times as he helplessly looked through the first web wall to see Tonks and Ross ducking and twisting their way through the webs towards the door on the other side of the room. "Why the bloody hell can't he?" He continued to struggle against his seemingly unbreakable bonds.

"Oxygen-"

"_What_?" Harry heard Ron exclaim from out of sight. "Hermione this isn't time for some sort of Chemistry lesson!"

"He's right, Hermione," Ron agreed while raising his wand up.

"If you light a fire you'll burn up all the Oxygen in the room and we'll suffocate!" Hermione nearly screamed as she lunged into Harry's view and collided with Ron. The arm the Weasley had raised was batted to the side and connected with the thick webbing and became as firmly stuck as Harry's entire body.

Harry could see that Ron was already paling with fright. As brave as Ron had been in nearly all the other encounters since the following year, spiders were still a taboo subject. Hermione on the other hand had gone pale as well. She tugged at Ron's free arm for a few moments trying to free him futilely until Harry spoke again.

"Alright, Hermione. What are we going to do, then?" he asked while trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. Ron was already moments away from being overcome with panic and he wanted to sound as soothing as possible.

"_Diffindo_!" Hermione cried with her wand pointed at one of the thick strands of webbing. The spell sliced into the strand, but only managed to half sever it. This allowed Ron some mobility of his wand arm, but couldn't free him. "Hrm, thick stuff-"

"We've got company!" bellowed Moody, although he was most likely unaware of the cliché.

"What?" Ron croaked almost instantly. "What is it?"

"Best you don't know," Moody growled in reply as both Tonks and Ross began casting Reductor Curses.

Harry struggled against his bonds in an attempt to see what on earth was going on, but he was firmly held in place. He heard Hermione let out a huge gasp, in which Ron replied with a whimper, but Harry was sure that his best friend didn't have a clue what was going on either. It was then that Hermione pointed her wand up into the air and fired off a powerful cutting hex.

"Hermione! What are they?" Ron called out again, although his face was showing a look of pure terror. Harry had a pretty good idea that Ron could see what the other members of the Order of Light were shooting powerful spells at.

"Chinese Mountain spiders! I've heard that they were used for-"

"Shut up, Luna! There's no time for that now!" Hermione bellowed before firing off yet another spell at an enemy Harry couldn't see.

However, just because Harry couldn't see the spiders didn't mean that he couldn't feel them. The thick webbing in which he was stuck too was vibrating quite fast and Harry was sure that it wasn't entirely due to wayward spells. There were also far too many separate vibrations to just be spells. The spiders also had to be as large as some of Aragog's children, at least, to make webs so large and make such strong vibrations travel through the strands themselves.

Since Harry was stuck face first in the webbing he could see Ginny, Luna, and Neville all firing up into the air. Ginny shrieked and the three of them moved down as what looked like a giant shadow fell from the sky and crashed hard on the stone floor. Harry then recognized it as a gigantic black spider that had what looked like a bright red circle on its chest.

The spider had fallen on its back and was flailing its limbs around wildly. As the movement from this particular spider, as there were many others descending down the webs to the floor, subsided, Neville and Ginny approached cautiously. Luna was simply gazing at the next closest spider as if it was an interesting painting while Justin, Moody, Tonks, and Ross were busy fending off two more of the beastly spiders.

Hermione was doing her best to keep three of the spiders at bay while Ron had his eyes closed and was blinding firing stunning and blunt force spells into the air where there were no longer any spiders. Harry re-doubled his efforts to get out of his prison and help, but his wand was stuck against a strand of web as well and was only pointing straight up. It was no use. He'd have to sit this one entirely out while he got a front row seat.

What happened next happened so quickly that if Harry had blinked he wouldn't have seen it. The spider that Neville and Ginny were examining had slowed down its movements, but when the two had come just close enough the spider slashed one of its legs around in a weird motion that pitched Neville backwards off of his feet and opened a gash in the boy's side. As the leg continued on its movement Ginny barely reacted in time to save her from being decapitated by the obviously sharp armor like substance on the leg itself, but still had the tip streak across her cheek and leave a deep gash. She tumbled backwards and landed on her rear near Neville as the spider's movements died down again.

"Neville!" Ginny cried and pulled herself, ignoring her own wound, over to where Neville was lying on the ground quite still. Although Harry couldn't see it from his vantage point, he had to assume, judging by the fact that Neville wasn't moving and the look on Ginny's face, that there was a very deep gash, perhaps fatal, on the far side of Neville's body.

There was another loud screech, inhuman this time, that made the hair on the back of Harry's neck stand up. He forced his eyes to look up as far as he could from his predicament and saw several eyes hanging just above his face. There was a click of the spider's jaw as its mouth opened. The fangs were already dripping with a clear substance that Harry naturally assumed were some type of entirely poisonous venom. He could almost hear Luna's voice explaining such a thing. "The Chinese Mountain spider's venom is incredibly toxic and used for farming-" he stopped himself realizing how far gone he was if he was thinking about that.

"_Sectumsempra_!" a voice that was clearly not Luna's called from Harry's right.

Harry felt a sharp breeze against his neck and for a split second he thought that the caster had missed his mark and sliced into his neck instead, but a horrid screech filled his ears once more and rattled his brain. He had never thought spiders made noises before, but at their current size he supposed that was the reason for it. Suddenly he was falling to the ground with a sharp crack and sharp pain that raced its way up his leg. It took him a few moments of chaos to for him to realize exactly what had just happened.

To Harry's side, still unable to pry his wand arm from the thick strand of web, Ron had contorted his wand arm in a painful angle so that his wand was pointing just above where Harry had been stuck. Looking up at where he had been stuck he saw that the web had been badly severed by powerful cutting curse, which apparently was a lot more powerful than the simple cutting hexes Hermione had been trying earlier. As his eyes fell down he could almost feel himself pale.

There was a giant spider lying upside on the ground oozing an odd silver substance from a gaping hole in back. The problem was that the spider was lying directly on Harry's leg, which had clearly snapped in two and been crushed under the immense weight. Harry just hadn't felt any pain due to being in shock. In fact, he still didn't, but was merely getting light headed. "_Wingardium Leviosa_," he muttered as he felt himself soaring through the air. The spider's carcass was lifted off his broken leg, which was snapped in at least two locations, and was thrown against what remained of the web Harry was tangled in moments before. He simply gazed at his broken leg.

"Harry… you ok mate?" Ron's weak voice came from behind him, but Harry didn't even turn around.

Neville was more important right now, but as Harry glanced over he saw Ginny kneeling beside the fallen Gryffindor and performing some of the healing magic that Harry had insisted everyone learn specifically for this mission due to Susan not being available. Neville seemed to be awake now, though his face was quite pale and he seemed to be in a good deal of pain.

"Hermione!" Ron's voice pierced the air again and caused Harry to whip his head around towards his friend who was still struggling to get his wand arm free of the sticky and unrelenting webbing.

Harry jerked his attention back to where he had last seen Hermione battling three spiders. Two of the spiders had been neutralized in some fashion that Harry didn't even recognize, but they seemed to be covered in some sort of blue jelly that was slowing their movements to a near stand still. The third had backed Hermione into a corner, but the main problem was that there was another spider descending behind the witch's back and from the looks of it she hadn't seen it.

Harry tried to get to his feet and move over, but his broken leg gave away instantly and he tumbled back to the ground face first. Groaning slightly as there was a throbbing sensation rippling up and down his leg muscles; Harry pulled himself to his elbows and flicked his wand towards Hermione. "_Crystallinus_!" he bellowed.

Behind Hermione a transparent red crystalline barrier appeared out of thin air just as the gigantic spider took a swipe with one of its razor sharp legs. The tip of the claw hit the crystal and snapped badly. There was a screech of pain from the spider and it swiped again, with two legs this time and with a lot more force. The spider obviously expected the crystal to shatter upon impact and was quite shocked when its two legs snapped at the joint. With the forward momentum the spider seemed to fall forward, which Harry, if he had the time, would have realized as quite odd and humorous given the fact that spiders never slip from their webs, and crashed into the ground in a similar fashion as Harry had just done.

The crystal barrier was one of the new spells Harry had been practicing of late. It was as strong as a physical barrier could come, but took an incredible amount of energy to maintain. There was also the downside that because it was merely a transparent crystal magical spells such as Stupefy and Expelliarmus could be shot through it, but there was the added danger because no one knew which direction the spell would exit in since spells refracted like simple rays of light. Harry wouldn't dare use it against a Death Eater.

With a second spell Harry had knocked the spider back into the webbing that it had descended. The spider thrashed around in the webbing on its back and seemed unable to free itself from the sticky strands. This time Harry did blink a few times at it, wondering why exactly that was as spiders tend not to get stuck in their own webs, but since he had just broken two of its legs he couldn't really blame it for some carelessness. By this time Hermione had taken care of the third spider in front of her, but Harry barely noticed. The pain of his injuries was starting to affect him now and he felt lighter headed than ever. He found himself closing his eyes as the darkness consumed him.

When Harry opened his eyes again he found that only a few moments had passed, but he was lying beside Neville while Tonks was running a diagnostic type over his leg with her wand.

"I may not be as good as Madam Pomfrey ever was, but at least I can mend broken bones," Tonks said with a slight grin before looking over at Neville.

"Thanks, Tonks," Harry muttered as he looked over at Neville to see that, for the most part, Neville's injury had been healed up, but he was in obvious discomfort still. "How long was I out?"

"About a minute," Ron commented as he picked the last little piece of the webbing off of his cloak. "Ginny had pretty much treated Neville by the time Hermione took out the last of those… those… beasts. It only took Tonks a minute to heal your leg, but it'll be weak until Susan can look at it." He shuddered at the memories of the spiders. "Bloody things… I hate spiders."

Harry managed to crack a grin. Behind Ron the webs that were still standing seemed to dance serenely in the wind while behind the webbing itself Hermione and Luna appeared to be arguing over the ancestry of the Chinese Mountain spiders, if that's actually what they were called, while Justin was trying to get them to both calm down. "Well, they're gone you know-" He stopped and concentrated on something just behind Ron.

It became instantly clear that since they were inside a stagnant old tomb there should theoretically be no wind, albeit there had to be some air circulation since it was breathable. Even more wrong was that fact that the web strands were so thick that they shouldn't be moved by anything short of someone running into them. With a large feeling of dread welling up in him, Harry glanced upwards and saw where the web strands disappeared into the darkness, eight large and red eyes blinking back at him. Before he could even open his mouth to warn anyone of it, there was a flash of white.

The webbing the gigantic spider hit Ron and entirely engulfed him in cocoon that muffled his cry of terror.

It all made sense, now. The Web Spinner up above was the spider that had produced all the webbing. Even the Chinese Mountain spiders definitely couldn't have produced webbing that size, at least Harry assumed this, and in fact no one had seen them spinning web at all. The bad thing was that the immense Web Spinner put Aragog's size to shame and made Harry wonder just how high the room reached if all these spiders were concealed in the darkness. He also, at the back of his mind, wondered exactly how these spiders were staying alive given that it was a sealed tomb. _Obviously it isn't as sealed as we thought_.

The Web Spinner had launched two more streams of webbing and had ensnared both Ginny and Neville before they could do anything but stare in a mix of shock and amazement at Ron's predicament.

Harry reacted by pointing his wand straight up at the large, ugly eyes, and letting a powerful Reductor Curse sail from the tip of his wand upwards. The spell hit one of the eyes with a popping sound and before Harry knew it he was covered in some clear, plasma like fluid. If he wasn't in a life or death situation he would have been sick to his stomach to know that he was just doused in ocular fluid. The Web Spinner thrashed around in pain causing the webbing to shake frantically. With an amazingly quick movement for its size, the Web Spinner began to haul up the three cocoons containing the struggling Ron, Ginny, and Neville towards its jaws.

It was then that Hermione, Luna, and Justin launched a barrage of stunning spells up at the massive form. It was impossible to miss, but because the spider was so large it only was merely dazed from the attack.

"The cocoons! Get the cocoons!" Harry yelled as he fired a cutting hex at the nearest webbed prisoner. The spell cut about halfway through the thick strand and caused the cocoon to tilt badly on its side. Harry's second shot severed the cocoon from the strand the Web Spinner was using to haul it up. The cocoon fell towards the ground at an alarming speed while Hermione's group began firing their own hexes at the other two cocoons.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Harry heard Tonks cry and the cocoon halted in midair. Harry could hear Ron mumbling softly from within the expertly wound fibers.

With only a passing glance to see that Hermione, Luna, and Justin had managed to break the cocoons containing Ginny and Neville away from the Web Spinner, Harry pointed his wand back up into the air. He was met by the gaze of seven eyes this time, but felt a drop of warm liquid hit his forehead. He didn't bother to wipe it away as he already knew, and inwardly sighed, that this was another drop of ocular fluid. Just as Harry was about to strike again, the Web Spinner crawled up out of sight which caused all of the webs to sway dangerously. Harry realized he and everyone else were likely to get stuck randomly. "Out! Get out! Where the bloody hell is Moody?"

"This way!" Tonks called as she was just finishing extracting Ron from the cocoon prison. She pointed towards the far door. "Moody and Rachel went to secure the next area!"

Harry grunted in acknowledgment and quickly headed towards the door Tonks had indicated. He found that his mobility was somewhat reduced and he couldn't move at top speed without significant pain in his leg. Still, it beat having his leg broken in two or more places entirely. The Web Spinner didn't make a move from him and chose to stay hidden up in the shadows. Harry made it through the archway which, he happily noted, looked solid enough and far too small for the Web Spinner to fit through and pursue them any further. Of course they'd still have to be wary of the bloody thing when they came out, but this time they'd be prepared.

Harry stopped short when he realized that all the other members were staring out in awe. Harry's own jaw dropped. The cavern they were in now was absolutely massive. It was so large that Harry wondered if it was even possible to fit that much into the tomb, but he did remember how far down the original staircase was. Of course there was also magic to consider. The group was situated at the top of a large staircase that was up against the cavern wall at the south western point. It descended down the side of the cavern until just before it made it to the floor of the large room it jutted out to the right and touched the cavern floor.

Along the far walls there appeared to be other staircases going up into the shadows or twisting into new corridors as well, but the main attraction was by far the center of the massive room. Standing surrounded by what looked like a square moat, though Harry highly doubted the substance in it was water given what he remember from his trip with Dumbledore to the underground cave, was a large fifty foot megalith. At the base of the megalith on the western face there were some weird carvings that must have been large given how far away the group was.

"Bloody hell," Ron mumbled from just in front of Harry. "Who needs all of this?"

"Egotistical wizard who think they're above everyone else," Moody grunted in reply. "Somehow, Potter, I think our struggle here has just begun."

Unfortunately Harry couldn't exactly find any reason to disagree.

To be continued.


	18. Just when you thought it was safe

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 18 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Albus Dumbledore: Dead. Voldemort: Spreading his evil. The only thing that stops him is the Boy Who lived, who must turn into a man if he wishes to not only survive, but win this wizarding war.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Chris wrote the new summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching. We've determined that this is bugging me on AIM when I'm slacking off while wearing skimpy clothing (not that this has anything to do with the actual definition of 'wench').

**A/N** - So, it's only been a good five months since my last update. No big deal. You all still love me. Right? Expect chapters to be only around 5k-6k words in length now. It is a much more manageable length given my schedule.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 18**

**Just when you think it is safe to go back into the water…**

"_If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." – Loran Eisely_

"Well it certainly doesn't _look_ dangerous," Ron commented as he leaned over the edge and into the pitch black water. The group had made it to the moat area and while Moody, Tonks, and Ross were setting up a perimeter, Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the team had crossed on the small and narrow bridge over to the island where the megalith stood.

"I bet it is," Harry grumbled back. After his experiences in the cave with Dumbledore the previous school year Harry had uneasiness about the mysterious looking water. More importantly, the creatures in Grindelwald's tomb seemed quite dangerous compared to the Inferi. Harry didn't like the fact that he was starting to think of Inferi as harmless. Harry mused he himself was probably more dangerous than he was then too, and this strengthened his resolve.

"More than likely there is another privacy spell on the water itself to prevent us from seeing into it," Hermione added, though her attention was focused upon studying the words on the megalith. "Oh!" she exclaimed after a few moments.

This drew Harry's attention from the ludicrous thought of sticking his head into the water to see what was below up to the megalith. There were giant letters and symbols carved into the rock, but as far as Harry could tell they were in German and none of them spoke it. He silently cursed Nikolaus for running out on them. "I can't read German, Hermione."

Undeterred, Hermione pointed directly up at the lettering. "Just _look_, Harry."

Blinking a few times in confusion, Harry concentrated up on the lettering. He felt incredibly stupid, but Hermione had obviously seen something he had not. Perhaps it was simply the runes. Yes, that was it, Harry decided. The runes. Hermione did, after all, take Ancient Runes at Hogwarts. He frowned and was about to turn back to his friend when before his very eyes the carved letters wavered and then slid around the megalith. When the lines and loops stopped moving, Harry noticed that the words were now in English.

"Blimey," Harry heard Ron say beside him which confirmed Harry's suspicion that Hermione had forced him to stare at the megalith as well.

As Harry quickly read the words he knew deep down inside that nothing good would come of it. He really, really, wished he would stop feeling that way. Too bad common sense got in the way of that wish.

_You foolish mortal_

_You wish to open this portal_

_To the greatest leader of all time_

_You are nothing more than swine_

_Do you have enough heart to brave the fire_

_Or shall your weakness succumb to its ire_

_Rock cannot withstand the everlasting water_

_What hope do you have to withstand the slaughter_

_Face the tremendous power of Earth_

_If you prove successful you will still have your girth_

_Finally you will meet the ferocity of wind_

_It would be wise to not end up pinned_

_Passing these trials will not easily be wrought_

_I hope you fail so your pitiful efforts are for naught._

"I don't really like the sound of that," Ron said in a whisper. "The slaughter?"

"Can't be worse than the spiders, can it?" Neville said with a weak grin as he clapped Ron on the shoulder and continued reading through the poem.

While the others began to converse about the meaning of the poems and just how bad it actually sounded, Harry noticed that Remus was up close to the megalith and running his hands over the smooth stone. Harry went up beside the Marauder to see what he was doing.

The spot where Remus was interested in seemed to have four small slits aligned in a straight horizontal row. Each of the slits had a different rune over it that Remus was examing.

"Fire. Wind. Earth. Water," Remus commented as he pointed to each rune in turn. "They seem to be keyholes."

"But to open what?" Harry asked aloud even though he didn't mean to. That of course was main question.

Remus slid his hands a bit farther to the right of the keyholes and stopped before tapping the megalith with a finger. "This door," he stated plainly. He turned and gave Harry a marauder-style grin.

"Door? What door?" Harry blurted out. "And how did you do that?" he added quickly. This was quite similar to what Dumbledore had done in the cave. It appeared that many fully trained witches and wizards were able to sense magic and it was a skill Harry very much wanted to know.

"I'll show you when we get back since it takes some time to learn, but basically there is a strong magical signature coming from the other side of the megalith. It's probably where Grindelwald's body itself was laid to rest."

_And Voldemort's Horcrux._ While Harry didn't know that Voldemort had been in here, it certainly was fitting the pattern of what Harry had come to associate with the man. Large and overly grand places littered with dark creatures and advanced magic. "So, where do we get the keys then…" Harry wondered aloud.

No sooner than the words had left Harry's mouth the ground began to shake causing him to slip and collide painfully with the megalith itself. From there the ground gave one final rumble, which would have caused Harry to fall onto the ground had he not been leaning against the solid stone. He glimpsed around and noticed that Ron, Neville, Hermione and the others were picking themselves up from the ground and brushing off their robes.

Of course that wasn't the only thing that caught Harry's attention. Right next to him and Lupin were four statues arranged in a square with a statue at each corner. The one closest to him was a woman that looked like there was a huge wind blowing from behind her. Her hair was looking windswept as was her long flowing dress.

Ron's mouth was hanging open as he was staring at the statue nearest to him. There the woman had long hair that went down to her shoulders and was wearing a strapless dress. In her hands she was clutching what could have been a clay vase. The vase was pointing towards the opposite corner of the square, which was the statue of the windswept woman. "Where the bloody hell did these come from?"

Hermione glared and her boyfriend, which caused him to close his mouth and gulp, and then she nodded towards the statue Ron was ogling. "That's Aquarius, the water bringer."

"And Slyph, the Mistress of the Air," added a dreamy voice. Luna was admiring the windswept statue up close.

Harry could see that Hermione was biting back a comment, which confused him. He himself couldn't find anything wrong with Luna's comment; he had heard something about a Slyph somewhere in mythology.

"And Mars," commented Remus again while rubbing his chin. "Except that all of these statues are of women." He was checking out one of the other statues. It was a woman with short hair and carrying a sword and shield. The sword was pointed towards the center of the square.

"Gaia, then," grunted Moody as he hobbled up towards the final statue with Tonks and Ross right behind him. "Mother of the Earth. Question is what are they?" He seemed wary of getting too close.

"I think they're harmless, Professor Moody," Ron said as he reached out and leaned against the Aquarius statue. He instantly jumped backwards, stumbled, and fell.

Harry instantly knew why Ron had leapt back so quickly. The statue had begun giving off an incredibly powerful magical aura. Out from the vase shot a stream of water that headed for the center of the square. Instead of splashing all over the smooth floor like Harry and everyone else expected the stream hit the floor and split into two droplets. The droplets began drawing a circle on the floor by traveling in opposite, arcing directions until they collided on the far side of the circular pattern. The rim of the ring flashed brightly.

"Transportation circle," grumbled Moody, although he sounded somewhat impressed.

"Transportation circle?" Hermione asked instantly with the typical fanatical learning glint in her eyes.

"It's rather advanced magic, obviously, and its pretty complex which is why wizards don't normally travel by it," Remus added quickly. "Most wizards would settle for Apparation or Portkeys for the obvious reason that they're simple to use. Transportation circles died out in the middle ages."

"So, basically, you step inside and get transported?" Harry asked simply as he inched closer to the circle.

"That's why you're our leader, Harry! You can catch on quickly by thinking on your feet!" Tonks chimed in brightly before Ross elbowed her in the ribs.

"I bet that's not the only place he thinks quickly," the black haired Auror added. Had Harry been paying attention to what was going on behind him with Tonks he would have noticed Ginny shoot the two women a murderous glare.

"Yes," Remus said as he came up to examine the circle closely. "Of course, like a Portkey, we don't know where it will go once you step foot inside. It's entirely possible this could transport you to a room with no exit or a place that has no oxygen."

Harry lifted a foot and put it inside the circle and winced as if he was waiting for something spectacular to happen. He mentally sighed with relief. His peaceful sigh was ended by Ron forcefully grabbing him and yanking him backwards.

"Harry, are you mad? You have no idea where you're going to go!" Ron exclaimed. His ears were turning red. Perhaps he was vividly remembering the spiders from just a few minutes ago. Then again, Harry couldn't blame him. Grindelwald's tomb was hardly the safest place in the world.

"Remus has a hunch that _those_-" Harry pointed to the slits in the megalith, "- are keyholes. I agree with him; the runes above them correspond to the four elements. Here we have statues that produce Transportation circles for each of the four elements, I would assume. Where they go, I don't know, but I assume they go to where we can get the keys for the megalith. Then-"

"But you have no bloody idea where it'll go. You can't think its safe," Ron interrupted angrily.

"Of course it won't be, but we need the keys anyways-"

"First there was the vampires, there were a lot of fun, weren't they?-"

"Once we have the keys we can probably open up the megalith and find the Horcrux. If I know my Dark Lords, which I do," Harry couldn't keep a tinge of bitterness out of his voice, "Voldemort will have hidden it in the hardest place to reach-"

"Oh, and of course, the spiders. I _hate_ spiders. Did you know that? Well who bloody well knows what's going to be next-"

"Sounds like a plan," Ginny agreed quickly who stepped past her ranting brother and up beside Harry. "Besides, it can't get any worse, can it?"

"Want to bet it can? You just _wait_, Ginny! There's probably giant octopuses in there or something!"

"- which would be beyond all these keys and such," Harry finished. "We don't really have a choice if we want Voldemort to be stopped, now do we." He lifted his second leg and almost entered the circle entirely, but then stopped and turned back to face everyone. Ron was just finishing his rant. "I just want you all to promise me that if I die you won't do something like _this_-" he gestured around the entire chamber with a flail of his arm. "Just dig me a hole in a desolate field and put up a little sign saying 'Here lies Harry Potter, the Boy Who Failed to Stop Voldemort'."

"We'd probably keep you near a farm instead, with some cows you know. You'd probably make excellent fertilizer because-"

Harry didn't catch the rest of Tonks' comment as he stepped fully into the Transportation circle and vanished entirely. It was very much like Apparating, Harry decided, because he felt like he was sliding through a tight tube. However, he figured the ending was much like a Portkey since he landed, painfully mind you, on his backside. He groaned and sat up straight as Remus appeared beside him and was followed quickly by Ginny and Luna.

"You'll want to get out of the way quickly. The point is so that everyone can enter the same place without worrying about splinching with each other, such as the case with many people Apparating to a similar location, or having to hold an item such as an old boot," Remus explained quickly.

"Such as…" Harry said as his eyes winded at the sight of the room he was now. He stopped in mid sentence. He made a note to ask Remus about the practical applications of the Transportation circle later as Neville and Justin appeared behind him.

The room was a long rectangle about the width of sixty feet and had a length of three quarters of a standard Quidditch pitch. Of course, much of this was covered in a perfectly placid 'lake', if you wanted to use the word lake. It stretched and immense distance without a single ripple or wave. At least, Harry realized, the lake wasn't pitch black, but it was deep enough so that you couldn't see the bottom. There was definitely no shoreline here.

Sitting on the smooth floor by the edge of the enormous pool was a single wooden boat that looked like it could have been from Hogwarts. However with their current sizes it would fit only two or three people, maximum. The pool was also very lengthy and would take a considerable time to cross at a decent speed. For Harry there were also added effects. He approached the boat in a light sweat and his hands trembling.

This was far too like the underground cave that he and Dumbledore had explored just a few short months prior. It all hit far too close to home. There was a lake, a small wooden boat, and something far down on the opposite side that he could barely see, although he assumed it was another Aquarius statue based on the size. He shuddered remembering what had happened once he and Dumbledore had crossed their lake to find the potion. From then on it got worse. Harry promised himself he wouldn't let anyone succumb to Death Eaters like Snape or even creatures such as Inferi. That is why he needed to get over this. He took another step towards the boat, but a large lump got caught in his throat that made him sputter and stop. It was going to be harder than he thought.

Harry heard a muffled comment that sounded like Ginny so he slowly glanced over his shoulder to see her fighting to get away from Ron and Hermione who were holding her back. Not entirely caring, Harry looked back towards the boat. This was all too soon for him. He could visually see in his mind the look of horror on Dumbledore's faced as he twisted and withered on the ground after drinking the potion that guarded Voldemort's Horcrux. A Horcrux that turned out to be a fake after all. While he wasn't entirely worried that he'd have to drink something like that, albeit that it wasn't on his list of things to try, he was more concerned about what his friends might do in order to protect him. He wouldn't put it past many of them to try and take a hit or spell for him just to see that he succeeded in defeating Voldemort. He wouldn't let that happen, however. If he was going to lose he wanted to be the first one out.

The pool in front of him didn't ripple once the entire time he was remembering his last challenge involving a Horcrux hunt and water. This wouldn't have seemed odd at all, but of course the water should have been stagnant from all the idle time it spent, but it wasn't. While the depth of the water made it impossible for it to be truly clear it still felt _wrong_ in some way, the entire feeling was unnatural. Of course, magic itself was unnatural. He shook his head and tried to clear his doubt before he looked over at the single boat. With a wave of his wand he had cast a duplication spell and mimicked a second boat beside the original. "I guess we all have to go across to get out of here," he commented idly while he wiped his eyes on his sleeve sneakily so that no one would see. Everyone else did anyways, but decided not to comment.

Ginny quickly approached his side and clutched his forearm with her hand, but Harry shook her off right away. The last thing he needed was comfort. Seeing the look of hurt on her face Harry shot her a grateful glance and then shook his head indicating this wasn't the time for being comforted, no matter how much he might have wanted it. Ginny gave a nod in understanding as the look of hurt disappeared from her face.

Turning back to the boats, Harry examined them further. Each boat would fit three people, or two of the people were exceptionally large. Hermione and Neville were already climbing into one of the boats while Ron was cautiously pushing it from the edge and into the pool. Hermione and Neville already had their wands sweeping around the water as if something was going to jump out of attack them instantly. Given what had happened so far this was probably a pretty likely response to expect.

Harry waited for both Justin and Ginny to climb into his boat and get their wands ready for anything dangerous before he pushed it off into the pool and hopped aboard. Luna, Remus, and Moody had repeated the process in their own boat as had Ross and Tonks. Moody reached over the side of the boat and tapped the wood near the water with his wand twice. Silently the boat accelerated towards the other side of the pool. Ross repeated the process before Harry realized that it was a simpler version of the spell used in his first year for Professor Flitwick's Charms exam, which was making a pineapple tap dance across a table.

The boats silently glided through the water for several minutes with nothing happened except for the occupants of the wooden craft shuffling around anxiously and keeping sharp lookouts.

"Quiet. Too quiet," Justin remarked in nearly a whisper that managed to carry across the calm water.

"Yeah-" Ginny began, but stopped instantly. "Do you hear that?" she asked nervously while she shifted her weight so that she could aim her wand over the bow of the boat.

Harry leaned forward and stained to hear what Ginny was talking about, but couldn't hear anything. "No-" he stopped just as quickly as he had begun as well. Sure enough there was a faint, high pitched voice coming from up ahead.

Of course, that was the least of Harry's, or anyone else's for that matter, concerns. It seemed that the farther the boats drifted across the manmade lake, the foggier it became. Unnaturally foggy, at that. It had to be unnatural, Harry reasoned, as they were indoors and it just seemed to start out of nowhere at about the same time Ginny had mentioned hearing something odd coming from ahead of them.

Everyone shifted nervously and took up positions near the bows of the little boats with their wands pointing into the thicker fog. It was then that the voices grew louder and a general song could be made out, although it wasn't any song that anyone present from the Order of Light knew.

"What… are they?" Ginny asked as a shadowy figure came into view several yards ahead. While detailed features were hard to make out, it appeared to have long hair.

"Sirens! All of the males need to cover their ears!" Hermione shrieked almost as soon as Ginny had finished her question. It was too late, however.

The sirens' songs had turned up a notch into a more heavenly tune than Harry could ever have imagined. Although he knew it was cliché, he could have sworn he was listening to angels sing his favorite song, which eluded him at the moment, but it didn't matter. Within seconds he wasn't sitting in a small wooden boat with with Justin and Ginny anymore. He was lying on a beach with a crystal blue ocean on front of him.

_Harry couldn't believe his luck. He yawned, closed his eyes, and laid back on the soft blanket that was waiting just for him. He only opened his eyes when something as soft as silk pressed into his lips._

_Staring into the face of a young woman with flowing blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, Harry blinked a few times to make sure that he wasn't dreaming. He pinched his own arm and it hurt. Nope, he definitely wasn't dreaming. "Who are-" he began to ask, but the woman put her fingers to his lips again to effectively silence him. Her skin was softer than any other he had felt in his life._

_Too distracted by the kiss before, Harry just now realized the woman was entirely nude and resting up against him. He flushed bright red, but the woman didn't seem to mind. She leaned in closer for a kiss, but Harry had a nagging feeling something wasn't right. His mind went blank and he closed his eyes when the woman pressed her lips to his. Harry was sure he had died and gone to heaven. This wasn't anything like kissing Ginny. It was better. Far, far better. The strawberry taste on her lips made him hungry, although he was certain that there was only one thing that could satisfy his hunger at this very moment._

_That something was casually sliding her hand down his chest towards his groin. It was now that Harry realized he himself was naked, but it didn't matter._

_That was, until the giant tentacle ruined the mood._

Harry's eyes snapped open as there was an extremely loud crash, a horrific sound made by something he never wanted to see, and screams of his colleagues. Gone was the crystal blue ocean with a sandy beach as he was soaring around nineteen feet in the air over the same man made lake he was sailing through in a boat moments before. Except now everything had gone to hell.

In the midst of the lake a gigantic… _creature_ had surfaced. Its sheer size was enough to create a massive whirlpool when it had surged from the bottom of the lake. The whirlpool was enough on its own to capsize all of the small wooden boats Harry and his comrades had been using, but the beast itself had taken to breaking them in half with a few of its long, muscular tentacles. The sirens, Harry noticed, were entirely unaffected by the whirlpool whatsoever as they had remained motionless on the outskirts without being sucked in like everything else. Out of the corners of his eye, Harry could spot his friends floundering in the water. To his horror, it appeared as if some of them had been thrown farther than he had.

The water came abruptly as Harry fell ungracefully into the lake once again only to be instantly caught in the whirlpool and get whipped around at a breakneck speed. Up closer, the creature seemed to be a giant octopus, if that was possible, and Harry inwardly told himself he'd be smacking Ron if he got out of this alive. The sirens were obviously to cover the approach of the octopus and keep everyone off guard, not that it would have mattered too much.

Harry felt as if he was going to be torn apart by the force of the whirlpool as the entire scene whizzed around him. Tentacles flashed passed him several times, threatening to decapitate him with their agile movements. He felt sick and was ready to throw up, but doing so underwater wouldn't have helped the situation any. He simply had to keep his mind and hope the whirlpool would stop soon so that he could regain his bearings.

Thankfully for Harry his hope became a reality as the spinning was starting to subside and the giant octopus began making hideous noises; the water slowed and Harry was able to surface, barely. He took a breath and looked around. Tentacles were flashing past his vision everywhere and smacking what remained of the wooden boats, but leaving the humans around. _I wonder why…_

Harry had his answer sooner than he would have liked. The sirens immediately dove under and sped towards them with speed he had not known was possible underwater. It was only mere seconds before there was a sharp pain in his leg and he was pulled underneath the surface himself. He grimly swallowed the mouthful of water he was forced to and looked down at this assailant. A scaly green, and very unattractive, but still decidedly female creature had sunk the claws on its fin into his ankle. In what could have been called slow motion due to the fact they were underwater, Harry brought up his wand to point at the siren.

However, because the action was incredibly slow compared to the siren's breakneck speed, the creature had absolutely no trouble retracting her claws and dodging. The siren did an underwater back flip before swimming back a good twenty meters. Harry didn't even get a chance to fire the spell he had been intending to. The wound on his ankle was now starting to give off a red tint around him as the blood spilled into the water.

Harry tried to head to the surface, but the siren charged him down a second time with both sets of claws ready to strike. He would have liked to get above water, but he knew he'd be forced to fight floating underwater. Harry could have sworn the creature had a sadistic grin on her face. If Bellatrix Lestrange would ever have an Animagus form, this would be it. Given that his wand was already up and ready now, Harry was able to fire off a Reductor curse at his attacker.

In fact, it wasn't as much of a Reductor curse as it was a concentrated stream of bubbles that the siren easily dodged by rolling to the right. The creature continued her kamikaze run towards the wizard while the latter racked his brain for something that would be useful underwater. Finally, his memory didn't fail him. He distinctly remembered two spells from his training with Hermione this summer.

But the main point was timing. The siren was soaring through the water a frightening speed and Harry had only slightly shifted his wand over to face it when he furled his brow and concentrated hard on the spell. "_Adstringo aqua_," he said, although it only came out as bubbles. The effect was far more devastating than bubbles.

The siren stopped dead in the water as if two clamps had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and held it in place a mere meter from Harry's face. Its face was contorted in a mixture of surprise and pain. The latter only grew as Harry's eyes burned and his spell intensified. The invisible clamps seemed to press in against the siren's frame harder. The claws on the siren's left arm shattered, but the broken claws didn't sink to the bottom. Instead they remained buoyant half an inch from the creature itself.

It wasn't long before the siren let out a high pitched scream, but this one wasn't intended to cause males to hallucinate about oh-so-awesome events. It was filled with pain, but said screaming stopped at around the same time as its windpipe was crushed entirely. It was yet another interesting coincidence. Gritting his teeth, Harry pumped more power into the spell at hand. He fed in his anger and frustration that had been building for weeks. There was a sickening crack as many of the siren's bones crushed together. He was pissed off. It had been weeks of stress without release for Harry. The siren's head collapsed in on itself. And by Merlin nothing was going to get in his way right now.

With a mental roar in anger, Harry released the spell. This caused two things to happen.

To be continued…

**A/N** - Well that felt good to finally get writing this again. You should probably thank the .txt file on my computer that housed the original conversation I had with Chris about the story plot and when we finally decided to write a fanfic based on our post HBP debates. That, and random insanity.


	19. Untitled ATM

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 19 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M

**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.  
**Series summary**: Albus Dumbledore: Dead. Voldemort: Spreading his evil. The only thing that stops him is the Boy Who lived, who must turn into a man if he wishes to not only survive, but win this wizarding war.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.  
**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Chris wrote the new summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching. We've determined that this is bugging me on AIM when I'm slacking off while wearing skimpy clothing (not that this has anything to do with the actual definition of 'wench'). Oh, and Danny, Slytherin is _not_ tainted!

**A/N** - Chris was too busy making GSC teams to make a chapter title at the moment. If you have any idea what "GSC teams" are, well, good work.

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 19**

**Untitled as of Yet**

"_We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still." - Lewis Thomas_

Both things happened simultaneously. First, a red cloud rapidly expanded from where Harry had held the siren under immense water pressure. It engulfed Harry before he even had a chance to bat an eye. The pieces of shattered bone dug into his skin and stung, but otherwise didn't burrow deep enough to be life threatening.

Secondly, the force of Harry releasing the spell caused him to be sent flying backwards. It also caused a pillar of water to erupt from the surface. To any observers from up above it would merely look like someone had detonated a submerged mine. Harry quickly struggled his way up to the surface. His lungs were burning now and he re-realized that he, unlike the sirens, needed oxygen to survive.

When his head broke out of the water he took a moment to examine his surroundings as, for once, nothing was threatening to kill him immediately, or so he thought. He noticed that his cloak was stained with the blood of the siren when it had exploded due to him releasing the water pressure. Any thoughts he had about removing his rather heavy, drenched, cloak were quickly extinguished when he realized that the blood drenched cloak had stopped several small bone fragments from penetrating his skin. He brushed them away in annoyance.

While Harry might have been momentarily left alone the other members of the Order weren't as fortunate. The screams and shouts of curses that echoed around chamber only fueled Harry's anger more. He searched for a new target as the crushed carcass of the siren sank to the bottom of the pool. Luckily, he didn't have to look very far. There was still a gigantic octopus creature with tentacles flailing in the middle of the pool. Unfortunately Harry knew he couldn't simply use his water pressure spell because he couldn't create an area of effect large enough to crush the thing. Also, since he'd have to create a larger area of effect the pressure would be less and an octopus didn't even have any bones to crush at any rate.

No, that left him with very few options. He aimed and fired a Reductor curse at the membrane tissue located around by what could have been the octopus' brain. Oddly enough, although there was clearly impact, the octopus didn't notice at all. This only served to anger Harry anymore. Knowing that he'd have to find a more sensitive area to strike at, he dove back under water after taking a breath and spied the octopus' large bulbous eyes. While he had bad luck striking eyes earlier today, he figured this would be better since there was only a very obscure chance he'd be splattered with ocular fluid in this current situation underwater. Still, his luck was far from good so far in Germany.

If there was one thing that would have humbled Harry and killed his current bloodlust it would have been exactly what happened. The octopus was a lot more perceptive than Harry had given it credit for. When he readied his want to cast a curse towards the creature's eyes, a giant tentacle smacked him up and out of the water. Surprisingly it was less painful than it was humiliating and surprising.

This time in the air Harry noticed more of the battle going on since he was simply flung straight up in the air. There was another pillar of water that erupted from off towards the far side of the pool. _Good, at least someone else remembered that spell_, Harry thought before he started his downward fall.

As soon as he splashed back into the water rather painfully, as it was hard to adjust his body position to fall into the water correctly with a heavy, wet cloak, he felt some sharp objects cut into the back of his neck. He looked around frantically as he felt the water turn abnormally warm around the base of his neck since his own blood trickled out of his body. As soon as he spied one of his attackers, another siren, and prepared to use his water pressure spell to finish it off like he did to the first siren he met, he felt the sharp pain of another set of claws raking across his lower back.

Luckily these didn't penetrate his cloak, but it was still enough of a jolt. Harry turned his head to the side ever so slightly. Out of the corners of his eyes he saw that he had two siren watching him warily. It was painfully obvious that if he moved to attack one, the other would attack his exposed back and that would be the end of him. If he even tried a spell that took a while to take effect or required a lot of concentration, the second siren would end his life before you could say 'Quidditch". It wasn't just that he was struggling for his breath and his life underwater, it was also that he was growing tired as well. The cloak, the constant swimming, and the magical exertion he was going through from pumping so much of his magical reserves into the original water pressure spell.

There was only one option for him, and he had to put it into effect immediately before the sirens simply out waited him so he had to swim to the surface and take a breath. Doing that would be akin to suicide in these circumstances. With a flick of his left wrist and hand, he shot a weak wandless stunning spell that only came out as a jet of bubbles towards the siren on his right. When the right siren moved even an inch, his wand was already in motion crossing over his body and pointing to the left. He opened his mouth and said a spell that used up all the oxygen he had in his mouth. That was to say, a stream of bubbles floated up to the surface instead of actual voice.

A crystalline shield appeared between him and the second siren just as the creature itself was about a meter away from him. The siren didn't have time to react at all and crashed headfirst into the shield. As the shield faded and Harry desperately swam to the surface for a quick breath while he had the slightest chance, the siren slowly sank to the pool's floor with a cracked skull that happened to be oozing a red trail of brains and blood.

Harry's head broke the surface of the water just in time for him to see the octopus thrash around in what looked like pain and disappear under the surface at a far greater speed than he thought possible. This caused some large waves to ripple outwards, but nothing too threatening. There was also no attack from below. Harry had expected the other siren to be digging its claws or teeth into his legs right now, or worse, his abdomen. However, there was nothing. He dove back underwater in time to see the other siren retreating to the depths in which it most likely came. By the time he had surfaced, the waves caused by the octopus had subsided.

His strength, however, wasn't exactly at full. He tried to take a few strokes towards the nearest edge, which surprisingly was the side of the lake he was trying to get to in the first place, but his arms just couldn't support his weight anymore. He began to slowly sink into the inky depths in the wake of both the sirens and the giant octopus.

* * *

Severus Snape wasn't sure whether or not he hated the fact that the Dark Lord's lair, for lack of a better word, was nearly deserted. Nearly all of the Dark Lord's Inner Circle were off on missions of some degree or another, and a large bulk had been hand selected for something special. Snape was definitely not going to admit that he felt somewhat alone without the hustle bustle of people doing evil bidding, but given that his last thirteen years had been at Hogwarts with hundreds of students and now with many servants of the Dark Lord, it was feeling empty.

Still, this had its merits. There was no annoying Bellatrix Lestrange to rib and him and try to one up him with the Dark Lord. There was also no Macnair, because he was off in other parts of Europe at the moment. That meant there were no more people throwing the fact that they had an important mission while he was left without one at the moment. Rodolphus Lestrange, his brother, and the Carrows were all gone leading their separate small teams to cause havoc. However things weren't perfect as Bellatrix prided herself in her current mission. It was a good chance to redeem herself for letting Rodolphus get rewarded at her expense during his last mission involving the torturing of Hermione Granger. He wasn't complaining.

There were a few rodents around, still, like Peter Pettigrew. In fact, he would have traded Bellatrix for Pettigrew in a heartbeat. Bellatrix wasn't cowardly enough to follow him around in his shadow or follow him off to his house. Yes, Severus fully planned to return to his house to collect some of his potions equipment and perhaps take a few relaxing days off trying out some new potions he had ideas for while the Dark Lord was away. Unfortunately the Dark Lord's orders still stood. He was to protect Peter Pettigrew. By protect, the Dark Lord obviously meant that Snape should watch over the rat and make sure he didn't betray them all. Or vice versa. Not that Pettigrew had the guts for such a thing anyway. There was something more with Pettigrew than anyone but the Dark Lord knew.

Had Pettigrew been anyone else he would have simply been killed after the Dark Lord got his body back. Pettigrew was a coward and complete risk for the Dark Lord, but still he was left alive. Snape supposed that being ordered to guard and watch over the wimp of a wizard was an important task, if an annoying one. Or perhaps it was a horrible punishment. The Dark Lord was twisted in such ways that he could find Snape having to baby-sit Pettigrew as a sick game.

Snape frowned and headed towards the entryway of the lair to find Pettigrew already waiting for him. Snape simply shrunk the small bag he was carrying to a reasonable size and slipped into the pocket in his robes. He ignore Pettigrew's meek question of why they were leaving the safety of the Dark Lord's lair and Apparated leaving the rat to follow rather hastily.

* * *

The fist in the stomach made Harry sit up and spit out a long stream of water onto his lap. This didn't matter at all seeing as he was still drenched from his time in the lake, but as his mind slowly came back to the present date he opened his eyes.

"Luna! Stop doing that!" Harry heard Hermione shriek. He was barely aware of a minor scuffle in which one girl tried to restrain the other.

Harry's eyes were having a bit of trouble adjusting although his vision was slowly clearing. He was vaguely aware that he was lying on solid ground, which was a welcome change from the previous several minutes of intense fighting. He lay back down as Hermione and Luna bickered about something and closed his eyes. He was exhausted and just felt like sleep would be the best idea.

Some other people had other ideas.

"Get up, Harry!" Tonks cooed in his ear causing him to open his eyes once more and groan. He wished he had a pillow to hit her across the face with. He slowly got up and blinked before rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses.

"What, Tonks?" It was now that he realized again that there were other cloaked figures lying on the ground while Remus and, presumably Ross, were working on healing wounds. He became fully alert and crawled over to see what was going on.

After seeing Ginny and Justin lying stunned on the ground while Ross was doing her best to heal cuts on the formers cheek and shoulders, Harry got a grimace from Remus who was working on Justin. They mainly had superficial injuries, but some of the cuts were deep. While they could be healed by minor healing spells known to the ex-Aurors present and Remus himself, they would need better medical care as soon as possible. Harry nodded grimly and watched as Remus revived Justin. The Hufflepuff boy sat up warily and looked at his forearm, which Remus had been treating.

"How and why did they retreat?" Harry asked rather feebly. He was sure he was doomed there since he remembered his strength giving out only moments after the octopus and sirens. He would have been dead had the fight continued.

Ross had moved beside Tonks and Remus now, having treated and awakened Ginny. "Because I got this." She slipped her hand inside the pocket of her white cloak and pulled out a sapphire blue key. On closer inspection it actually was made of sapphire. "I pulled it off of that statue of Aquarius and all the creatures retreated underwater. The weird teleportation circle appeared over there too," she added as she pointed with her free hand

This was definitely something to ponder, but there was more Harry realized he needed to know. "How did you get that? We were attacked barely halfway across the water… you couldn't have swam across and-" he stopped in mid sentence and blinked. "You aren't even wet."

"Oh dear, he's upset you aren't wet, Rach," Tonks said with a grin.

"Stop calling me that," the black haired Auror bristled. Had the situation not been so serious and dangerous, Harry would have been relatively worried by the ever so slight blush that crept onto Ross' cheeks. "Tonks banished me over here once we saw the octopus about to attack us."

"That was some pretty quick thinking," Ron said with some degree of amazement.

"It wasn't really what you think," grunted Moody. Everyone turned to see him standing away from the rest of the group by the teleportation circle.

"Mad Eye…" Remus trailed off, but his tone carried nothing but finality. It was a warning.

Moody frowned and hobbled over a few paces leaving a trail of water. "They got a right to know, Lupin."

"You make everything sound so serious, Mad Eye," Tonks said with a weak smile. It was a poor attempt at lightening to mood. When something troubled Tonks, one knew it was serious. This was no exception.

"What is it?" Harry and Ron asked together.

"The Auror code," Tonks said. Her lip trembled slightly. It really wasn't like Tonks to fear something so much. Ross looked grim as well. Remus was frowning, but refused to say anything. Moody looked, well, like Moody normally does.

_What's so bad that they're afraid to tell us?_ Harry wondered as he looked between the faces of all the adults. Finally he looked Moody right in his remaining eye. "Tell us," he commanded simply, although he didn't really intend for it be a direct command.

"We were dead, Potter. Auror's code dictates that in hopeless situations at least one member of a team should be bought time or helped escape to tell the tale," Moody said bluntly.

Ross and Tonks nodded together before Moody continued.

"They saw us about to get massacred by those sirens and the overgrown octopus. They made a split second decision to make sure one of them got out. I guess they thought that Ross had more reason to live." Once again it was put in entirely blunt terms. The comment about Ross having more to live for clearly didn't sit well with Remus, but he continued to keep his mouth closed.

"When I first got over here I didn't know what to do," Ross piped up after seeing everyone getting quite demoralized by Moody's assessment of the situation, even if it was bang on. "There was no circle to get out and touching the statue didn't work like it did in the main chamber. Sorry it took me so long to work up the nerve to grab the key, but I wasn't sure if it was cursed so I had to run some diagnostic spells first."

"But when you grabbed the key… they all left. That probably means-" Hermione began.

"That they wanted to eat all the Snorkack bait I lost when I got knocked into the water…" Luna said, her voice full of disappointment.

Hermione merely looked over at the blonde girl with a look of utter disbelief written on her face. That quickly changed to contempt when she realized Harry's reaction, mainly.

Harry couldn't simply keep the laughter inside of him. It was ridiculous, really, given how tense the situation was and how much they had just been through compared to what they knew they had to go through. However, there was just something about Luna's comment and the fact that he actually meant it that just made him laugh. Perhaps he looked like a maniac whose mind had snapped under the pressure, but at the moment he didn't care. It was quite clear that others thought it was amusing and a great tension breaker as well. Ron was shaking his head in disbelief, but was chuckling. Ginny was trying to cover her smile with her hand so that she didn't seem like she was laughing at her friend.

"That's not what I meant!" Hermione said through gritted teeth. "Can't you get your head out of the clouds for one moment?" She might as well have been baring her fangs.

"Err, Hermione, we all know what you meant. If we can get someone to grab the key across the room everything bad stops," Ron said as he laid a consoling hand on Hermione's shoulder only to receive a glare in return. The witch seemed to have deflated though.

"Yes, exactly," Hermione added. "If we can come up with a plan we should be fine. Only one of us has to make it to the key!"

"Alive, mind you," Harry added only to see Hermione deflate a little bit. Harry was exhausted and he was sure everyone else was too, but it wasn't like they could simply camp out in a tomb of a Dark Wizard that was proving to be more dangerous than anything Voldemort had done so far himself. Even if they survived this, Harry knew, they still had to get out and back past Lady Astragal and her vampire minions. "But hey, for the first time since we set foot in here I feel like we have some sort of direction and plan." He walked towards the teleportation circle, but not before taking the sapphire key offered to him by Ross.

* * *

David Dryden was a rookie Auror. He had only joined the Aurors in the past six months since a call was put out that the British Ministry was hiring again. David hadn't graduated Hogwarts with an Auror career in mind, but jobs with a degree of danger intrigued him. He supposed he was like nearly every other Gryffindor in that regard. That is why, however, David felt that being set to guard a safe house was a waste of his time.

He and two other relatively new Aurors were shoved out of the action and put to guarding a house that contained two families that had been targeted by werewolves, or so senior Aurors said. Personally, David wished he could be fighting the werewolves rather than babysitting.

The safe house itself was situated off in a quiet part in northern England. It was a country house with very little light and no neighbors. Personally, David was sick of all the darkness. He was standing outside on the rickety old wooden porch beside his comrade, Shane Odden.

"Blimey I'm sick of this now," Shane muttered under his breath as he lit another cigarette. The red light on the tip of the cigarette was all that David could see in the pitch black night.

"Right. I know the feeling," David mumbled as he walked past the glowing cigarette and into the house itself.

Inside it was lit with flickering candles. From the main doorway David slid into the main room bypassing the stairs to his right. Inside this room, the Sawyers and the Meyers, the two families he had to protect, were seated on couches playing a muggle boardgame. The third member of the Auror team, a young woman by the name of Melissa Knoll, was leaning against the far wall. David ignored the four people playing Monopoly and leaned against the wall besides the slim brunette.

"You should be more alert," Melissa said after a few moments of silence. "We're supposed to keep these people alive."

David let out a deep sigh. "It isn't even a full moon, Mel." He shuffled his feet out of boredom. "You know full well this sucks."

The female Auror glared at her counterpart sternly. "Sure, David, just keep saying that out loud in front of the Sawyers and Meyers. I'm sure they'll appreciate it."

After rolling his eyes, David snorted. "Loosen up, Mel."

"Stop calling me that and get back to your post," Auror Knoll repeated with a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Shane's got it covered. No full moon means no werewolves, which means this is pointless." David should have known better. Melissa was serious about her job regardless of how menial it was. _Bloody Ravenclaw. Thinks she's so smart. What am I, a sewer rat?_

"Two outside and one with the targets. You heard Bond when he gave us this assignment."

"Fine," David grumbled unhappily. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and slumped back towards the front door. They were all dressed in muggle clothes as to not draw any attention on the slight chance some random person would come up to the door. David had to admit the modern muggle styles fit Melissa's form perfectly, but any hopes he had about hooking up with her were dashed in the first night there were around. She was strictly business.

The explosion that rocked the small house came out of nowhere and caught David by such surprise that he was knocked off balance and had to lean against a nearby wall for support. Drawing his wand from his bunny-hug's middle pocket, David hurried towards the front door totally oblivious to Melissa's warnings and the screams coming from the Sawyers and Meyers.

As soon as David set foot outside he slipped in something slick and fell to the ground in whatever the substance was. That didn't bother him, however. From his vantage point on his rear end he was looking straight up into the masked faces of four Death Eaters in full costume. Well, not quite. The light on the tip of one of the Death Eaters' wands was giving a creepy illumination that intensified the frightening look the Death Eaters liked to put forward. It was after a second that he realized one of the Death Eaters wasn't even wearing a mask. His face was gnarled and badly distorted. He looked like he had previously had a run in with some horrible curses.

If all that wasn't enough, with the light David realized he was sitting in a pool of thick red liquid. There was an arm sticking out of the darkness, but on closer inspection it was horribly charred and not attached to anything else. It was at this point that David realized a growing warmth in the crotch of his pants. The smell of urine flooded his nostrils, but he didn't care. The Death Eaters laughed as David's wand rattled on the ground beside him. He turned overly quickly and tried to scramble to his feet, but the slick blood of Shane Odden made that plan fail as quickly as it was thought of.

"Avada Kedavra!" a deep voice bellowed from behind him, but David was only vaguely aware of a green flash and then nothingness overtook him.

* * *

"Not another bloody golem," Ron bellowed in frustration as he tried to keep his balance. The streaming sand made that quite difficult, and Harry was struggling to keep up with his friend.

They were trying to rush up the hill that was seemingly all the Earth chamber encompassed. However, as soon as they had set foot on the dune the sand began to stream endlessly downward making trudging upwards a real chore. While the hill was high and would take a while to climb at an exhausting pace such as the one the group was setting, it would have been far too easy. Naturally that meant there was something more to it. This was easily proven to be the case when large creatures build entirely out of stone, incorrectly identified as something odd from China by Luna and a split second later 'correctly' announced as golems by Hermione, began climbing out of the sand itself.

The golems were easily routed by teamwork, however. They were large, slow, and although they were magic resistant, combined spells easily took care of them. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had simply all cast a levitation spell on one of the golems at the same time and managed to lift it successfully over their heads and pitch it behind them in a heap. Since it took the golems so long to right themselves and move, they were in little danger of being caught as the party continued their ascent.

The only reason why they simply didn't use Ross and Tonks' earlier plan of banishing someone across the room was due to the hill itself. They could have easily banished someone to the top of the hill, or two people so that one could banish the other down the other side to the probable statue and key, but it was too risky. In the short time they had spent in the tomb they had nearly died several times and taking needless risks wasn't the brightest of ideas.

"Same as before," called Harry as he pointed his wand at the newest creature emerging from the sand. Hermione and Ron were already pointing their wands at the golem. "_Wingardium Leviosa_," the trio said it unison. With the trio mimicking a throwing motion similar to someone throwing a baseball, the golem sailed behind them and landed with a resounding thud and a tremor.

Harry was feeling rather confident with himself until they reached the peak of the hill. The room was so simplistic compared to what they had just faced in the water chamber that something had to give. It gave in a hurry. It happened to be the ceiling itself. When Harry and the others reached the crescendo of the hill there was a terrifying rumbling. The vibrations could be felt through the ground. "Bloody hell," Harry muttered as he frantically looked down the steep hill.

Sure enough there was a statue of Gaia far at the bottom of the slope, but the path was crawling with golems. There was also no telling how fast the ceiling was shuddering downwards. Sure, it would hit the hill and all, but Harry wasn't about to count out the fact that it would keep pressing down.

There were also a bunch of rocky outcroppings dotting the slope. These made any thoughts of banishing someone past the golems a bad idea. Having them impaled before they could grab the key would be a bad thing. When Harry was nearly over his panic attack of thinking about a way to get down the slope without dying a most painful death, he was vaguely aware that Tonks and Ross were busy conjuring what looked to be ironing boards. He turned around and joined everyone else who was staring at them.

On closer inspection it was something that all of the party who had been in the muggle world had seen before. Snowboards, or in this case more appropriately referred to as duneboards, were being conjured at quick pace by the two ex-Aurors. Before he fully comprehended the plan Tonks thrust a duneboard that had a rather embarrassing design on it into Harry's hands.

The design in question was himself, albeit far more muscular with a shirt that was torn off, most likely in some epic battle in Tonks' mind, with two familiar looking girls gazing up at him appreciatively while their hands lightly grasped his arms or chest. Needless to say he turned that particular side of the board away from where Ginny and Luna were standing as he fought to control his blush.

"Use a sticking charm to adhere yourself to the board. It isn't a really safe method, but since you lot have probably never done this before it'll be easier than a horrible crash course," Ross explained quickly as she dropped her board, which had a design of a large shattered heart with storm clouds along the top, to the ground and cast a sticking charm. She hopped on sideways and crouched down.

"Crouch down and lean forward or back to turn. We don't have much time to get into anything further than that," Tonks added as she stuck herself to her own board, which by the looks of it featured a naked Remus Lupin.

Harry and the others followed suit as the ceiling continued rumbling downward at what looked to be a relatively slow pace, but Harry certainly didn't want to take any chances with it. "If you can't make it down, or can't do this, just stop. Try to distract the golems," Harry added. He bit his lip after that. He wasn't even sure he himself could duneboard down a slope of rushing sand, dodging golems and rocky pillars along the way, but he was certainly going to try.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ross and Tonks kick off down the slope. Ginny slid past him on his right, so he leaned forward enough to start himself down the hill. After a few wobbly seconds, he heard Ron follow suit.

It was, however, a shame that none of them noticed the telltale signs of creatures causing ripples in the sand halfway down the hill.

To be continued.

**A/N**: Yes. Chapter 19 _does_ have a cliffhanger. So will Chapter 20. Chapter 21 will be very long, but it will not have a cliffhanger. I promise you that. For 21 we're looking at over 10k again. That's to end a story arc. After that, as I've hinted to a few people, 'shit will hit the fan' in the Wizard World. I hope you're as excited as I am!


	20. Badged by Bellatrix

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light  
****Chapter**: 20 of 30+  
**Author**: skarm  
**Rating**: M  
**Timeline**: Post HBP. This means if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet you'll want to do so before reading this.

**Series summary**: Albus Dumbledore: Dead. Voldemort: Spreading his evil. The only thing that stops him is the Boy Who lived, who must turn into a man if he wishes to not only survive, but win this wizarding war.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters. They are owned by JKR except for a few original characters I have created for the purpose of this story. Needless to say, I did not invent this world and am merely borrowing it for some fun.

**Special thanks**: Chris does the beta work, Chris wrote the new summary and of course AJ does the e-wenching. We've determined that this is bugging me on AIM when I'm slacking off while wearing skimpy clothing (not that this has anything to do with the actual definition of 'wench'). Oh, and Danny, Slytherin is _not_ tainted!

**A/N** - Two… more… chapters… for… this… story arc. I also fail at meeting my fanfic writing deadlines, apparently. (rofl - having written that over 8 months ago, apparently yes, I do fail at meeting my deadlines. Oh well. A renewed effort commences once again…)

**Harry Potter and the Quest of Light**

**Chapter 20**

**Being Badgered by Bellatrix**

"_We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still." - Lewis Thomas_

"Zabini, just do it," Alecto's shrill cry rose above the blubbering of the muggle woman, who was bound and gagged, on the chesterfield in front of them. Amycus wheezed in an irritating chuckle, or giggle perhaps, from beside his sister, and behind the row of four ex-students of Hogwarts.

Blaise Zabini looked from the two muggles struggling against their bonds to the Carrows siblings. Both of them had shed their white masks to show their faces. They looked eager for excitement. "I think not."

Amycus stopped his wheezing giggles and narrowed his eyes, but his sister replied first. "You can't not do it!" she shrieked, doing a decently good Bellatrix Lestrange impression, Blaise thought, and raised her wand.

"You will regret it if you do that, I assure you," the younger man replied calmly. Not many people tend to be calm when facing down threats of the Cruciatus Curse.

"The Dark Lord has no time for those who won't do as their told! You will be punished!" Amycus said, coughing at the end. He sounded as if he'd been a chain smoker earlier on in life.

"Except me, although if you try it, I will tell him."

"Zabini, you aren't special-"

"Fine, I'll do it!" Another of Zabini's former classmates pushed through the middle of where Zabini, Amycus, and Alecto were standing to appear in front of the muggles.

"Nott, you're sadistic. I never would have pegged you to be the one to go over the edge like this. I don't know you anymore," Zabini commented before shaking his head in disgust and turning away.

"You fucking coward, Zabini. You just can't do what it takes to become a true hero," Nott spat back, his voice rising in anger.

Zabini turned to face his former classmate once more. "You aren't being a hero. You're being a creature. A fucking disgusting creature." He gritted his teeth and calmed himself, resisting the urge to hex Nott into oblivion.

"The Dark Lord will punish you-" Nott began, but one of the Carrows elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Silence, Nott," Alecto said, a lot more calmly herself now.

Nott must have been hallucinating, but he could have sworn he saw a glimpse of fear in the short woman's eyes. "But… fine," he said, turning back to his tied-up pray. "This is probably going to hurt you, but it certainly won't hurt me," he said with a sadistic grin in the corner of his mouth. His robes fell away to the ground before the boy reached for his belt buckle.

Mr. Granger, no longer fearing for his own life, looked at the youth with an intense anger. He struggled against his bonds even more fiercely as the delinquent approached his wife.

* * *

After falling down for the second time in a few seconds, Harry finally began to get the hang of dune boarding. That was great and all, because farther down the slope Ginny had successfully dodged a second golem. Tonks and Ross had been quite far ahead, but a giant plume of dirt and debris had blanketed the lower part of the hill. Tonks, or Ross, Harry wasn't sure which, had let out a scream. Nothing further had come from that part of the hill.

Harry bent at his knees and leaned back enough to allow him a sharp right turn around a golem's fist that had swung out to clobber him from his duneboard, which still had an embarrassing design on it. Luckily he was getting better as the seconds ticked past. This was obviously a good thing, but Harry had always done very well in a sink or swim environment rather than a safe classroom setting. This was one of those times.

He could still see Ginny's flaming red hair farther down to slope. The girl dodged another golem, and then seemed to have a clear run towards the dust cloud Tonks and Ross had disappeared into. However, it seemed that the ground itself wasn't exactly willing to accommodate such simplicity.

A jagged rock burst from the ground directly in front of Ginny giving her next to no reaction time. The red-head somehow managed to avoid it by shredding wickedly to the left. She somehow managed to keep her balance after all of that.

The giant spike that had erupted from the ground in front of Ginny wasn't the only one that appeared. Harry was so caught up breathing his sigh of relief that Ginny had survived the encounter and managed to keep herself upright that he hadn't noticed how far down the hill he was himself. He was very close to the giant dust cloud that Tonks and Ross had disappeared into, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was a repeat of what had happened to Ginny. That was to say another twenty foot spike tore its way through the sand. Harry leaned to the side, but didn't turn as quickly as Ginny had before him.

The underside of his duneboard caught a jagged piece of rock from the spire and snagged midway through. He came to an abrupt, painful stop that pulled his back. Blinking slightly and wondering what had happened, Harry found himself leaning forward at an impossible angle, yet still on his duneboard. "Bloody sticking charm," he muttered, waving his wand towards the board. This caused him to fall straight to the ground and have the wind knocked out of him temporarily.

The sandstorm had subsided a bit by the time Harry had struggled to his knees. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a difficult task even after all the punishment he'd endured so far since leaving the hotel, but the sand was deep and flowing downhill towards more golems, spire traps, and Merlin knows what. Due to the sandstorm subsiding Harry got quite a good look at what had caused either Tonks or Ross to scream. The cloud of debris and dust was caused by a massive centipede that had emerged from under the sand itself. The sheer size of the creature was awe inspiring, yet frightening at the same time.

Harry spied Tonks and Ross firing curses by peeking out from behind one of the rocky spires. One of them, Tonks by the look of the brightly colored hair, was holding her wand with only one arm since she was using the other to cover a wound on her leg. She was alive which made this one of Harry's least concerns for the time being. The centipede had just found a new target.

Stumbling backwards, Harry managed only to get one step back as the centipede's large pincers clicked a few times in preparation. The sand was impossible to maneuver in unless you were some sort of giant creature that was designed specifically for this. The ceiling also continued to rumble downwards. The first Reductor curse than Harry fired hit the centipede dead on, but barely slowed the creature down. The pincers clicked again before the head reared back.

The strike came quickly with the centipede's head racing down to catch Harry between the razor sharp pincers. A quick crystalline shield later had the centipede reeling backwards in a quick pain. The pincers had broken when it had tried to slice and dice the shield to get to Harry himself.

"Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks yelled from behind the stone spire. Ross gave him a cheeky wave after she finished firing another spell. "Still those bloody golems about!"

This was still only about half the problem. The centipede, while minus its main form of attack, still had its massive girth and million of legs to crush things with. With that it began to rear again and head straight for Harry.

"_Incendio_!" Ron cried. Harry believed it came from just a foot or two behind him.

The spurt of flames from Ron's wand was directed at the centipede's head and was enough to frighten off the creature's second attempt at crushing Harry, but it wouldn't be enough in the long run. The creature was either too large or too magical to be effected more than momentarily by basic magic.

There was still the problem of the golems, of course, but at least they had a clear plan when it came to defeating those. There was nothing in their playbook on how to deal with a gigantic centipede that was impervious to magic, while dodging golems, and surfing down a slope while the ceiling crashed towards your head. At least not yet.

"Blimey we get into a lot of crap," muttered Ron as he readied himself for another spell.

"Same as always," Harry retorted, setting himself as well.

It was all for naught as the centipede twitched during its next rear, then dove back into the sound without explanation.

Blinking, both Harry and Ron turned around, half expecting to see a giant golem ready to crush them, but there was nothing there, minus the sand itself.

"Even the ceiling's stopped falling," commented Ron, scratching his head. "Does this mean…"

"That your younger sister grabbed that topaz key? Yeah," Harry said, grinning and clapping Ron on the shoulder with one arm while he used the other to point at the bottom of the hill where Ginny and Luna were celebrating.

* * *

"Dit Voldemort, gaat hij spoedig toenemen?"

"Do not speak his name. He is the Dark Lord, our Master," the Death Eater warned.

"Ik ben droevig. Donkere Lord," the first man apologized. He looked quite similar to the Death Eater with his blonde hair and large build, but this main was Dutch while the Death Eater was clearly English.

"Actually, the Dark Lord has already risen. He's just keeping himself only partially amused with the wizarding world at this time. He plans to make a serious bid for power in the near future," the Death Eater continued to explain. He took a sip from the glass of water that was on the end table next to his well padded, although dated, chair.

The Dutch man let a small smile creep into his face. He was seated in a more elegant chair yet. "Deze Donkere Lord is Engels. Waarom geeft hij om ons in Nederland?"

The Death Eater chuckled and swirled the water around in his glass before setting it back down on the table. "The Dark Lord is not looking for further power besides the British Isles, however his ideals should be followed everywhere. You, Lord Wynja, follow the Dark Lord's ideals here. Surely an alliance of sorts would benefit both parties. You have quite a following here in the Netherlands."

It was the Dutch Lord's turn to laugh. "Dit is waar, maar als deze Donkere Lord aangezien u houdt van op te scheppen, waarom hij vereist hulp zo krachtig is?"

"Allies are always welcome, Lord Wynja. The Dark Lord is powerful, yes, but we invite others to take pleasure in crushing the futile resistance that will be put forward. Think of it as an offer to share in the pleasure. I know that you and your political followers, just like ours, have been forced to keep your true desires hidden. This is a place where you can let loose without possibility of the law interfering."

"Ik zie. U brengt een interessantste aanbieding. Ik zal over het denken," the Dutchman said before taking another sip of his wine.

"That's all I ask," the Death Eater said, bowing his head in mock respect. He certainly didn't respect Lord Wynja, but his mission for the Dark Lord was to bring an entire political faction of the Dutch House of Lords and Ministry to his side. It had proven rather easy so far. "There is someone I'd like you to meet, first, though."

As if it had been planned, the door to Lord Wynja's study opened and a younger version of the Death Eater walked into the room with a surly, carefree grin on his face.

The Death Eater smirked as Lord Wynja's glass nearly slipped from his hand. "Yes," the Death Eater said nodding. "My son is quite famous as you can see…" It was just as well the Dutch were so easy to woo. France would probably be harder, but at least he didn't expect any challenges in Germany.

* * *

"I've. Effing. Had it," spat Harry angrily as he touched his hand to his cheek. A harpy had just raked its talons across his face yet again. His situation wasn't looking too good and his options were limited.

Harry and the rest of the Order of Light had entered the room representing wind, by the looks of it, but this time weren't really expecting an easy challenge. They were right to assume such a thing because when they began to walk on the smooth stone floor, which had small holes all throughout it, a fierce wind had picked up. Instead of pushing them backwards like they had assumed, it came from below and shot them upwards right towards the ceiling. Of course the ceiling was covered in jagged, spiky rocks.

Luckily they'd had the sense to cast spells on themselves to either suspend themselves in air or weight their feet down to the floor. Both hadn't helped when the harpies had entered the fray.

Harry himself had cast an iron boot spell on himself and had no trouble walking along the floor at a slow pace, but then a bunch of fast moving harpies with sharp talons had come whizzing by him out of nowhere. The screeching was horrendous and made it feel as if his ears drums were about to burst. It reminded him to never make Ginny upset.

They looked like hideous mutant birds. Or that was the nearest Harry could figure as they whizzed past him. They had feathers on their wings, and sharp talons, but no beaks. Instead there was a human looking face with bright orange eyes - much like Buckbeak the Hippogriff's. It didn't really matter, Harry knew, all that mattered was that he got to the other side of the room and grabbed the Emerald Key.

Harry could hear spells being cast as well as the visible flashes of light from his comrade's wands. It was time for drastic action, and Harry was sick of trying to play it safe. _Of course playing it safe would have been not entering this bloody tomb in the first place_. "Ron!" he called out, trying to find where his friend was. Only Ron would do it, he knew.

It took his best friend a few moments to reply, and even then his voice was strained. "What? I'm a little busy here!"

"Banish me. I'm taking off my spell," Harry called over his shoulder as he waved his wand at his feet. "Finite Incantatem." The winds immediately picked him up and sent him towards the ceiling. _Oh come on, Ron, banish me or this will be a quick end_. There was a jolt as if someone had slammed into him from behind. Now, not only was he sailing upwards, but he was also being rocketed across the room as well. He nearly collided with what he thought was a harpy, but it was too blurry to tell.

The crystalline shield Harry created just before he impacted the spikes was enough to stop him from being impaled, but he hadn't thought through the rest of the plan very well. Nothing stopped him from slamming into the shield, and hard. The force of the hit flung him downwards again, although thankfully at an angle where he landed out of the wind, although painfully on his shoulder, right near the statue of Sylph.

His lungs were burning, although Harry figured it might have been his chest in general. His ribs had taken nearly the full brunt of him hurtling into his own crystalline shield, where as his shoulder had mainly taken his fall from the sky. He was lucky he had been cushioned slightly by the wind slowing his downward velocity. That didn't make it any easier.

Opening his mouth to speak, Harry couldn't make any sound it and it hurt to cough. _The least of my problems is getting the wind knocked out of me_, he thought grimly as he pushed himself to his knees. From there he tried to stand, but there was a sharp pain. He sank back down to his knees and was only vaguely aware of the screams and screeches coming from the other half of the room. The harpies had thankfully either forgotten him, or thought he was dead already.

"Accio, key," Harry sputtered out weekly, giving a half-enthusiastic wave of his wand in the general direction of the statue. The last thing Harry remembered was closing his hand around an emerald key before hearing someone fire a stunning spell from close range.

* * *

The first thing Harry noticed when he groggily came around after being out for who knew how long was that he was back in the main room of the tomb instead of the hellish wind room he'd been in previously. His left hand was empty, however, and this was a problem since he was sure he'd grasped the key from the statue of Sylph before passing out. Furthermore his ribs were wrapped up rather crudely with what appeared to be a shirt. That was okay, Harry thought, given that he knew he'd at least fractured some of them. "Alright! Onto the next room!" Harry he exclaimed, trying to sound enthusiastic, but failing rather dismally. He tried to sit up, but was grabbed by the shoulder and forced to lie back down.

"I don't think so, Harry," Remus Lupin's voice came from behind him. His face appeared upside down in Harry's vision as his former teacher stood over him. "You have several fractured ribs that I doubt I healed well enough, first off. Second off, you're getting far too reckless and we're worried about you." Remus' facial expression changed from a neutral one to a fatherly glare.

"Alright, Remus, look. We need to get the last key, get the Horcrux, and get out of here-" Harry said, before he was interrupted by a grinning Ronald Weasley. "Bollocks, Ron, what are you smiling at?" he snapped. He then noticed something glimmering in his best friend's hand. "That's… the ruby key…" Harry stated needlessly.

As it turned out, while Harry was stunned, the rest of them had decided to raid the last room without him since they knew how he'd react to an suggestions he sit one out. There was also something involving an army of heliopaths in the room, or so he got from Luna's half statement, which was interrupted by a loud growl by Hermione. He decided not to press his luck any further. Upon soliciting all the keys from the rest of the Order, Harry approached the megalith and inserted the keys one by one in the slots, hesitating on the last one. They honestly had no clue what to expect, and given the track record of the tomb it probably wasn't going to be good.

The hesitation was for naught, though, when a regular sized door swung open, obviously by magic seeing as it had no hinges and there had been no outside appearance of anything prior to inserting the keys. Harry, Ron, and Hermione descended the short stairs to a regular casket.

"You'd bloody well think with all this other crap that he'd have something a little more fancy than this," Ron commented, and both the others agreed with his statement. It was odd. Hermione quickly cast an opening charm on the casket, causing the lid to pop off. There was no skeleton involved, but merely a very familiar goblet. Familiar to Harry, anyway.

"That's it. That's bloody it," Harry said, his eyes swimming with excitement at the find. After all of that they'd found Hufflepuff's Cup, one of Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. "Don't touch it!" Harry said, batting Ron's arms away as the redhead was about to grab the cup with his bare hands. "Remember how I told you about Dumbledore's arm?" Ron gulped in acknowledgment. "That was from Riddle's Ring."

Hermione was a few steps ahead of them, and had conjured a thick red cloth, Gryffindor red naturally, to wrap the goblet of Helga Hufflepuff in. She tapped her wand on the cloth after wrapping it, and then explained that the cloth would not come unraveled by accident.

Harry nominated himself as the carrier of the Horcrux simply because he didn't want to burden anyone else with it. As he tucked the bundle of cloth under his arm, he heard Moody's gruff cry from back in the main chamber.

"Potter! Get up here now!"

Although by the time Harry, Ron, and Hermione sprinted up the few steps, the dread had sunk in, Harry didn't know how bad it was until he spied around thirty to forty Death Eaters, all with their wands drawn and pointing at Harry's group just passed the small bridge that crossed the oozing black, tarry moat.

"We've been set up, Potter," Moody stated, his wand trained on the nearest few of the Death Eaters. They were hopelessly outgunned, though, and fighting here would be suicide.

"Wittle baby Potta! We meet again!" the nearest of the Death Eaters said, pulling off her white mask to reveal herself as Bellatrix Lestrange, although the baby talk would have made Harry guess that instantly.

"Yeah, yeah, we've got to stop meeting like this," Harry shot back while glancing around the gigantic chamber. Surely there was a way out of this. He didn't go through all of that crap with the vampires, the spiders, and then the tomb's own traps to get stopped by a bunch of Death Eaters. He spotted something odd, but brushed it off. Surely the tar hadn't bubbled right beside the bridge. "Do you know what we've been through? You lot are probably the most laughable of it all." He had to buy time, and insulting them always did the trick. He wasn't scared of Death Eaters anymore.

"Awww, Potta, please cut the act. Hand it over and _maybe_ we'll let you live," Bellatrix stated, although it was the most hollow 'maybe' Harry had ever heard in his life, even including some of the times when Uncle Vernon had told Harry that 'maybe' they'd celebrate his birthday. Several of the Death Eaters laughed or guffawed. The tar bubbled again, more so this time, and wasn't noticed by any of the Death Eaters.

_Dare I ask_? Harry mentally sighed. Still, any diversion would be useful right now. He quickly learned to be careful what he wished for.

Bellatrix was about to reply with another taunt when the bubbling intensified greatly. The Death Eaters noticed it now, and the one closest to the bubbling spoke.

"What the bloody fuck is that?" Harry vaguely could place the voice, although he couldn't be certain.

A large, straight skeletal… object, that somewhat resembled a spine, which was the best way Harry could describe it, shot up poised from the tar. Everyone stood mesmerized by it as it hung in the air. Harry didn't even realize his jaw had dropped. After all he had seen today, this place kept raising the bar. Then the skeletal object struck much like something ensnaring its prey by the tip of whatever had come out of the tar, punctured the nearest Death Eater's chest. It pulled the man off the ground, hanging it upside down by what Harry clearly recognized as the tip of a stinger.

The man's mask slid off his face and Harry recognized him finally as O'Toole, a Slytherin who graduated last year and had lead the Death Eater attack on the Leaky Cauldron. The stinger disappeared into the tar as quickly as it had come up. The bubbling was furious now, and Harry was certain that something big, or whatever controlled the stinger, was about to surface. Worse still, on the opposite side of the narrow bridge, a similar disturbance was happening.

It wasn't all bad, however, given that the Death Eaters were in pure disarray now, some screaming at the horror, others swearing, and Bellatrix trying to back off the bridge, which resulting in her shoving another Death Eater into the tar amidst the bubbling. With a flick of his wand, Harry disillusioned himself and hoped the others were already springing into to action. He didn't have to tell them to get out of the tomb at any cost. This was probably about the only chance they'd have to get out of here alive. They were outnumbered by both Death Eaters and creatures alike.

Charging forward, Harry sprinted into the mass of scrambling Death Eaters while two large skeletal scorpions crawled out of the bubbling tar on each side of him, their stingers poised and claws clicking. He collided with a Death Eater head on and felt himself fall to the ground. The Death Eater had also fallen, and his mask had slipped off, and Harry recognized him as Stevens, O'Toole's friend from Hogwarts. He didn't have time to really care. There were shouts of curses, hexes, and charms flying all about the massive chamber. He had no idea what the rest of his friends were doing, or where they were, but he could have sworn he heard their voices every now and then.

He swerved this way and that way, pushing Death Eaters out of his path. Many of them were running in the direction of the main staircase like he was despite Bellatrix's shrieks and orders to kill the white robed figures. A few Death Eaters tripped ahead of him, causing a chain reaction that had Harry sprawling across the pile of bodies and having the floor rush up to meet him. The cup popped out from under his arm like an American football fumble and bounced a few times before rolling, and then catching another Death Eater, causing him or her to fall awkwardly. Then the Death Eater was impaled through the back by a boney stinger.

"Accio, Horcrux!" Harry cried, training his wand on the bundle of cloth, causing it to fly towards him where he caught it in his hand. He gulped when he looked up and saw the skeletal scorpion, which was about as tall as he was before adding in the daunting stinger, stalking towards him, claws a clicking. "Oh bollocks," Harry said rather plainly as he dived to the side to avoid a quick thrust of the stinger. He winced as the pain in his ribs made him lose his breath. He timidly looked over his shoulder to notice the scorpion had found other targets. Things were happening too quickly for him to keep track of.

His saving grace was in sight, however, as he spotted the staircase that lead to the exit just on the reverse side of the mass of bodies fleeing. If anything could have been described as chaos, this would have been it. Up ahead of him one of his members was dueling expertly with an equally skilled Death Eater that surprisingly wasn't Bellatrix. Harry wasn't sure who else could have been that skilled, but whoever it happened to be was keeping up with the skilled ex-Auror of Alastor Moody. His weary footsteps nearly made him slip on the stairs several times as he closed the distance to the dueling pair. Things weren't unfolding well for the Order member, however.

Moody had sidestepped and nearly fallen off the edge of the stairs into the main chamber again dodging a body bind from the Death Eater. The second spell, a stunner, Moody was also able to avoid by leaning backwards. It was then that his fate was sealed. A wooden leg simply isn't able to balance nearly as well as a human foot, and Moody toppled, off balance, over the edge of the staircase and the two stories downwards into the brouhaha below. That was the last Harry ever saw of the aged Auror.

"Mad-Eye!" Harry bellowed in anguish. He focused his attention on the murderous Death Eater and stared the man down. It seemed that the Death Eater had stopped, and was peering over the edge to examine his handiwork. When he spotted the fuming Harry Potter, he simply dropped his wand, which rattled down the stairs and removed his mask.

"I'm done, Potter," Henry White, the Auror who had once been a guard of Azkaban prison, stated before hanging his head in shame. "I've killed Alastor Moody. I'm a murderer."

Blinking at this unexpected turn of events, Harry's mind reeled. White was the traitor that had allowed Voldemort and his Death Eaters to break into Azkaban, and now he had killed Mad-Eye, but he seemed very remorseful about it. "But… why?" he managed to ask as bodies ran past him up the stairs. Clearly the Death Eaters weren't interested in fighting anymore. An echoing screech made Harry realize why - in addition to the skeletal scorpions, the harpies had also joined the fray, and who knows what else.

"My family, Potter. My family. Voldemort got to them before I could get them into hiding. Look after them, would you, if it's not too much trouble?" White asked in a resigned tone, assuming the worst had already befallen them. "Now get out of here. It's my time too."

Not bothering to argue at this point, Harry roared past White and took the stairs three at a time, but not before hearing the last words of the other Auror: "Well, looks like Voldemort sent his finest whore to send me to the next world." Harry couldn't help but smile grimly at the man as he sprinted out of hearing range.

* * *

Something was clearly wrong, Harry knew, when he set foot back in the room which had housed gigantic spiders not too long ago. Of course this felt like it was a eternity ago to the young man, but it really had only been a few hours. Most of the webbing had been cut to shreds and several cloaks littered the floor. Harry noted that these thankfully all were black cloaks that were worn only by Death Eaters and the vampires. A few Death Eater masks were scattered on the floor as well. Taking a deep breath, Harry took a step forward.

He hated being right. He really did. The Webspinner that they had fought before, that had spewed ocular fluid all over him from the wound it had suffered in their previous engagement, crawled down the wall and faced him, conveniently blocking the exit. The body that collided with him from behind sent him skidding a few steps forward and bringing him ever closer to the looming spider.

"Harry, I'm- Oh blimey!" Hermione stated as her eyes caught sight of their old nemesis. She pointed her wanted at it and shot off a stunning spell that had no effect. It merely bounced off the spider's body.

"Oh brilliant timing Hermione, any bright ideas?" Harry shot back as he backed up a few paces as the spider, with a few missing eyes, stared the two Order members down.

A grunt and a glint in the air caught both the young adult's attentions and as they looked over their shoulders before spinning on their heels, wands ready for an assault that didn't come. The de-hooded white robed figure of Ronald Weasley stood, the corner of his mouth twitching, as he stood engrossed at watching the Webspinner.

Having a sneaking suspicion something was up, not that he shouldn't have been turning his attention back towards the oversized foe anyway, Harry turned back in time to see the spider thrashing in pain as it wobbled around on a few legs. The other legs were busy trying to bat what looked like a green liquid from its remaining eyes that were smoking wildly. Within seconds the spider had rolled over completely and luckily out of the way of the door. What remained of its face wasn't much more than a gleaming skull and the smell of burned flesh that hung in the air.

"Tempered basilisk blood!" Hermione shrieked, half in annoyance, and half in awe. "Do you have _any_ idea how much that costs, Ronald Weasley?"

"Aww Hermione, give me a break. I bloody _hate_ spiders… it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"It was bloody brilliant," Harry stated before Hermione could scold his best friend any further. "Now let's get out of here."

Not having to ask twice, the Trio trudged up the stairs and out of the building to find that Neville and Luna had already made their way outside. Of course, the problem was that they weren't alone.

"A valiant, but ultimately futile effort, Potter," Voldemort stated. "You have something of mine, so why don't you just be a good little Gryffindor and hand it over?"

It wasn't the cliché statement that Voldemort had just thrown out, or the fact that he just now realized that amongst his other wounds and injuries that his scar was burning, or the chuckling Death Eaters, or the vampires, but the fact that Harry knew he had just damn well did all that for nothing.

To Be Continued…


End file.
